Manic
by Takoyaki-Sama
Summary: When the residents of Gensokyo are hit with a mysterious disease, it becomes every girl for themselves. Chapters broken up into different characters perspectives.
1. (Prologue) Cirno

**Prologue**

 **-Cirno-**

 **"Curfew is now in effect. It is highly recommended you stay indoors and fortify as best as you can."** Lily White floated in the air. Her hair had lost its color, turning from a bright blonde to a snow white. **"Repeat: Curfew is now** **in effect. It is highly recommended you stay indoors and fortify as best as you can."**

"Best we listen to her and start closing up the house." Wriggle started for the plywood, hammer, and nails. "Wanna help?"

I sat in the corner, still shocked about the events of yesterday. It was almost too much for me to take. "No."

Wriggle's arms slumped, I could tell I was bumming her out. Good. I was sick and tired of seeing her still carry on instead of mourn. "Look, we have to board the house up. We can go look for others tomorrow."

"Hmph." I had nothing to say to her. I didn't want to do anything.

"Cirno." Wriggle walked toward me. "I know you're sad about Mystia and Rumia. I am too. However, they'd want us to stay safe. So please, come and help me with this or else I won't get the boards up in time."

I got up and took a few planks of plywood in my arms along with a spare hammer Wriggle had. I didn't look at Wriggle, nor could I.

I placed the plank on a window horizontally and started to hammer the six-inch nails into the end of the plywood. Moving the end, I could tell the plank was on securely and I had enough room for about four more planks. I turned around and saw Wriggle working her side of the house. She was working twice as fast as I was. She had four windows secured when I had only two. The job went by faster with the two of us working and we were finished after 10 minutes.

...

Sure enough, a half hour after Lily made her curfew call, the moans were heard outside. I blew out the single candle we had lit and looked out the window. There was everyone we started with. Mai, Rumia, Keine-sensei, and all of the other Human Village children walking around clumsily in the school playground. Their teeth glimmered in the moon light and their pale white skin shone. Ghosts of what they once were.

"It's gotta be some kind of Youkai sickness. It's gotta be what's turning everyone into Manic Youkai." Wriggle said.

I didn't say anything. There was nothing _to_ say. I didn't want to tell her that I agreed. It's the only logical explanation of everything that's happened. One day, the Human Village was bustling with activity and the next day, everyone started to kill one another. Manic Youkai is what Lily White started to call them when she started her curfew announcements, so it stuck with us. Two days after the disease reached the Human Village, Mystia was one of the first to die. This was before we thought about blocking the windows. One night, they broke into the lobby of the schoolhouse that he had thought was safely locked. Sure enough when they broke in more than half of the students we started out with died. We pushed further back into the already cramped schoolhouse until we only had one corridor left. By the time we reached the last corridor, only Wriggle, Keine-sensei, 2 students whom I didn't know, Rumia and I remained. Keine and those 2 students died when we reached the corridor before the one we ended up in now. The Manic managed to break through the plywood, not to my surprise. It was very weak in the middle so they didn't have to try so hard.

Yesterday...

Rumia went out to go and see the Village and see if there was anyone else who lived. There was no one else. The Human Village was empty. She made the stupid decision to go out by herself because Wriggle and I would be damned if we were going out there. She came back too late and was caught after curfew. She was just steps from the house before the Manic got her. After her, only we were left.

...

"Cirno." Wriggle whimpered.

"What?" I was half-asleep when she woke me up. It was pitch black and I could only see the faint silhouette the moon made of her body. It was only after I started to wake up that I heard the loud moaning that were the Manic and they knew we were in here.

"They're gonna break through." Wriggle grabbed my uniform cuff.

I listened and I wasn't too sure. They might very well break through.

"Don't worry. We'll be fine. Try to go back to sleep." I said, turning my pillow to the cool side.

Right after I said that, the glass behind the plywood shattered. "Cirno..!" Wriggle started to cry.

I had accepted the possibility of death right after I saw Keine-sensei get killed along with those two students she was taking care of. "Listen to me, shut up! They're not going to break in here!" I wanted to believe what I was saying but I couldn't.

The plywood started to make a sickening sound and started to crack down the middle. She was right, it couldn't take much more of the banging. We were as good as dead. "Shit!" I yelled. I got up and started to get some more plywood and nails, Wriggle followed suit.

"Put them vertically this time!" I didn't think she could hear me over the deafening moaning. One plank gave way, then another. "Hurry!"

Wriggle stopped hammering and instead focused on pushing the plywood to loosen the slack on it. She had given up all hope. "Cirno, we gotta figure out a way to get out of here!"

"There's no way out without getting caught up in the horde! We have to hammer!" I said, hammering more nails on the end of the plank.

A hand made it through the plywood, bloodied by the glass scratching against it. It grabbed onto Wriggle's hand and ripped skin. She let out a cry of pain and fell back. That was all that was needed to let the rest of the planks break open and leave the window free for the Manic to enter. Wriggle's hand quickly discolored. I focused on smacking any of them that tried to enter. The thick plank did a great job of breaking in the heads of them. I glanced over to Wriggle who was writhing in pain, holding her bloody arm. Her arm was grey and the color was traveling up. So this is what a scratch or a bite did to someone.

"Cirno. Help!" Wriggle's voice was raspy and labored. There was nothing to be done.

"Uh..! I'm kinda busy!" My arm started to feel sore from the swinging. More and more pushed through to the point where my swinging didn't stop them from coming in. More and more flooded in, falling on top of one another. It was over. They fell on top of Wriggle and all I could hear was the piercing scream of Wriggle being eaten alive. Her blood pooled around and underneath the Manic on top of her. More started to come in and made their way toward me.

I could barely lift my arms. This plank was heavy and thick as is and I had been swinging it for the better part of 5 minutes. I couldn't kill them all if I wanted. The closest one was Keine-sensei. Her dark blue tinged hair was black and her skin a sickening grey. Her hands reaching toward me as she walked.

What had happened?

What went wrong?

I closed my eyes and put my arms in front of my body to protect myself. If only I had my spellcards...

I hate that rule... No spellcards allowed at school.

I was as good as dead. I felt the sharp teeth of Keine's sink into my arm and another Manic bit into the left side of my neck. It bit that part of the body we learned in Science. The jugular. All I could feel is my hair being pulled and the sharp pains all over my body. I fell and accepted my fate. My face hit the floor and all I could see was Wriggle's lifeless eyes look toward my direction. I blinked and closed my eyes for the last time.

I didn't hear their moans anymore.

 **Teatime and wait...**


	2. Marisa

**-Marisa-**

 **Forest of Magic**

 **"Repeat:** **Curfew is now in effect. It is highly recommended you stay indoors and fortify as best as you can."** Lily White echoed in her monotone voice. This was her last stop of the day, now she would go home wherever that was for her.

Marisa Kirisame didn't need to do any fortifying. They wouldn't make their way this far into the Forest of Magic without getting eaten by the carnivorous flowers or getting lost in the thick spores that barely shows two steps ahead of you. As far as she was concerned, it was safe.

Well... As safe as the Forest of Magic could be.

She was out collecting mushrooms in the last few minutes of sunlight she had left. She was to have Alice over for dinner.

In the corner of her eye, she saw a glint. A shaft of sunlight hit a golden mushroom. Marisa could have sworn she picked all of the goldens around her house.

"Hah! Nice!" She said to herself. Looking around, she saw the light was fading fast. Making a running start, she jumped up onto her broom and took to the air. From the air, she could see the smoke coming from the direction of the Human Village. Aya was still alive and delivering papers and the headline of the day was that the Village was lost. There was no sign of life. Marisa turned her head, she didn't want to think about the lives lost there.

She stopped a few meters from her house and could see Alice waiting by the door. "Heeeeeey!" She called out.

"Hey! How long were you waiting there?" Marisa asked, seeing that Alice was sitting in the grass.

"Not too long. I got here about two minutes ago." Alice said, playing with her hair.

Marisa showed the little potato sack in her hand, "Well... Worry not, we'll eat well tonight. Check this out!" She took out the golden mushroom she found earlier. "I found this a little while ago."

"Ohhh..." Alice's eyes gleamed as bright as the gold on the mushroom.

"Anyway, let's go inside." Marisa opened the door and let Alice go in first.

The crowded house was a turn-off to Alice. Books upon books upon books lined the floor and tables of Marisa's house. Diagrams of brooms, mushrooms, and houses were pinned up on her walls.

"Looks homey." Alice muttered.

"Doesn't it?" Marisa walked to a room in the back. It was noticeably neater than the living room. The table had two ornate plates with sterling silverware set next to them. Alice assessed it to be the dining room.

"Take a seat. I'll get started on the soup. It shouldn't take more than forty minutes or so." Marisa said, walking into a room adjacent to the dining room.

"Sure. Take your time." Alice sat and looked around. She had never been this far in Marisa's house and looking at it now, only the living room was _really_ dirty. If it were as clean as the dining room, it would make the house presentable.

...

Marisa was never good with time, as the soup came out after an hour. Alice had enough to see to keep her occupied, however, so she wasn't really bored.

"Sorry sorry... It took a while for the mushrooms to cook along with the broth so..." Marisa apologized profusely.

"No, don't worry about it." Alice let it slide. By this point, she was used to Marisa and her inability to tell time. It happens more times than Alice care to admit.

Marisa got a giant ladle in between her teeth and brought in a steaming pot of soup with her bare hands. She must have gotten used to the heat. She served Alice two ladlefuls of the soup. The soup was colored a bright blue, mostly because of the large amount of blue mushrooms Marisa picked in relation to the other colors. The mushrooms were diced to pieces, floating to the top. It smelled and tasted quite delicious. While Marisa saw Alice savoring the taste, she couldn't help but feel proud of her cooking.

Suddenly, Marisa heard a loud rapping on her door followed by a yell for Marisa. Marisa didn't recognize the voice. She walked over to the door and opened it. Behind the door was Star Sapphire. Her clothes were worn and tattered. She was out of breath and ran inside Marisa's house. Marisa saw four people behind her running with a strange gait. They had grey skin and their red eyes shone through the shade covering their forehead. Their teeth were an almost neon white. They had blood all over their bodies. Marisa quickly shut the door.

"What? What is it?" Alice stood up quickly.

"It's those things that Aya told us about! They made it in the forest!" Marisa locked the door with her bolt lock.

"I... It got them..." Star Sapphire was out of breath.

"Who?" Alice asked.

"Sunny Milk and Luna Child." She said. "We were just playing and these... things just came out of nowhere and attacked us."

"Dammit..." Marisa whispered. _"How the hell did they get in the forest?_ "

 _Scritch... Scritch..._

They were clawing at the door. Just those four wouldn't make their way into the house.

"Stay here for now. Where are Sunny Milk and Luna Child now?" Marisa asked.

"I had to leave them. They were..." Star Sapphire had tears welling in her eyes. "Those four were biting and scratching into their bodies... It's like they were eating them."

"Eating them?" Marisa shuddered.

"What are those things? Have you heard of them?" Star asked.

"Yeah, Lily White gave them a name. She calls them Manic, so that's what we call them. We didn't think they'd make it this far into the forest. Didn't you hear Lily's announcements?" Marisa asked.

"No, she doesn't make it to where we live."

"Wait a second, what the hell are you doing in the forest? You live behind Reimu's shrine now."

"We always come back here. It's where we used to live after all." Star said.

"No, but why are you here? Did something happen to..."

Star Sapphire couldn't lie, "I saw Reimu's shrine get attacked, yes. That doesn't mean she didn't make it out, though!" She tried to reassure her. "We came to the forest thinking the same thing, 'Oh, those things won't make it in here!' Well, lo and behold they did and they got my friends."

Marisa shook her head, "Did you happen to pass the Human Village on the way here?"

"Yes." Star Sapphire didn't look too enthused about the question as Marisa was.

"Did you see anyone there?"

"No, it was empty and those things were walking around everywhere from what I could see. I didn't walk all the way inside. I walked around it."

"Ugh, now what? Wait until morning when they go away?" Marisa groaned.

"I would say that's the safest plan for now." Alice chimed in.

Marisa almost forgot that Alice had come over, "Yeah, yeah. I guess. Anyway, you're welcome to stay here the night. We have some soup. Are you hungry, ze?"

"No, I'm sorry. I'm not hungry at the moment." Right. Marisa should've known she would've lost her appetite after seeing her friends die the way they did.

"Well, we'll save some for you just in case." Marisa said, and returned back to the dining room table.

"I'm sorry, but is there anywhere I can lie down?" Star rubbed her temples.

"Yeah, there's a couch upstairs. You can lie down there." Marisa said.

"Thank you." Star Sapphire bowed deeply and walked out the room.

"Poor girl." Alice said. "I can't imagine what she saw."

"Yeah, and I can't help but think about Reimu. I wonder if she made it out okay." Marisa stirred her spoon in her soup.

"Of course she made it out okay. She's Reimu." Alice said.

"Right." Marisa muttered. That still didn't mean she was invincible and can't die. From what Aya told her, it was one open wound inflicted by those things and it was over for you. No cure for the horror that was to happen to your body. Marisa lifted the spoon to her mouth and sipped.

It wasn't as good as it was before.

 **Teatime and wait...**


	3. Jiro

**Jiro the Human**

 **Outskirts of the Human Village**

His ankle was bloodied and bone was showing, no thanks to the Manic. Thank goodness for that. It had all happened very fast. A bunch of those Manic had laid waste to the Human Village in less than a week. It only became serious after the second night when they came in droves and started to break in through windows. That was the day Lily White started to fly across and warn the Human Village to board themselves in.

He wasn't in a good situation right now. He actually managed to escape the Human Village but in turn, he backed himself into a corner. He was outside, alone, and without any weapons. Even worse, it was almost night. He had to find something to hide himself in and fast. He could already see a speck flying over the Human Village and thought that it could only be Lily White making her announcement. He thought it pointless for her to come to the Village anymore, it was completely lost. In 30 minutes or so, the Manic, as she called it, would start coming out.

He didn't want to look back to the village that he had been born and raised in reduced to shambles. All the memories of the 20 years of his life, down the drain. His mother, father, girlfriend, and sisters. All dead in a matter of days. He ran away from his house when they were focused on feasting on his relative's dead bodies. He scratched his ankle deeply on the broken glass when he scraped his way through the window.

He knew that if he saw any Manic now that he would be dead. He couldn't run without an intense pain shooting through his leg. He could only limp. Then a noise rang out...

 _Grrrrrauuuu..._ It was Jiro's stomach.

"Ugh, I forgot to bring food." He said to himself.

He tried to ignore his growling stomach, hoping that he'd find some non-poison mushrooms on the way. Then he saw a small shack. No, correction: it was a small caravan. 'Hello! We're open!' was on the side door of the caravan and looking at the front, it was a snack bar. Jiro walked up to the side door and knocked.

"Hello?" Jiro called out. "Is anyone inside?"

He turned the doorknob and saw that it was unlocked. He smelled a foul smell from the inside. When he opened the door, he saw a dead body with a burnt hole in their forehead. Fire magic used for suicide. The man was probably shoved in here, as he looked like a Human Villager. Jiro lifted his yukata collar over his nose and looked in the cooler. There was a few wrapped squid buns and uncooked chicken. There were also several weird looking bottles with little orbs in the spout. He sniffed it and it smelled like lemon.

"Is this that Ramune they sell in the outside world?" He asked himself. "Huh..."

He looked at the cap and wondered how to open it. The cap was slightly indented and blue. He bit and tried to pull it off but to no avail. He tapped the side onto the serving table, but again no dice. Finally, he tried tapping on the cap. Increasing in power. It finally popped open and made a satisfying hiss. The smell of lemon took over his nose. He tipped over the spout and took a sip. It tasted delicious and it was still carbonated. He took the squid buns along with as many Ramune as he could in his left pocket. He closed the door and turned the sign to 'Sorry! We're closed!' He looked at the sky and realized that there would not be a lot of light left so he opened the door to the caravan again. He got the corpse by the legs and dragged it out. As its head hit the floor, he saw a huge spatter of blood from where the magic exited his head. There was a little burnt spot in the middle. He dragged it out and moved it to the trees. When he went back inside, he saw a futon wrapped up underneath the cooler that he didn't notice before. The man must have been a traveling caravan, giving snacks to tired workers all over Gensokyo. He felt a little sad for the man, he had been a hard worker after all.

He unwrapped the futon roll and covered himself. Jiro was just on the verge of sleep when he heard several shuffles of feet outside along with moaning. It was them. He made sure not to make any noise as they passed. The moaning grew louder and they almost sounded like they were fighting. Jiro then heard a sickening _SPLAT!_ and ripping. They were feasting on the corpse of the man who had committed suicide. As long as they were preoccupied with him, they wouldn't bother him in the caravan.

He closed his eyes, and after a few minutes, went to sleep and dreamt about the Human Village.

* * *

 ***Yes, yes... An OC... sorry!**


	4. Reisen

**Reisen**

 **Eientei**

"Don't worry, Tewi, we're safe here." Reisen reassured her.

Aya had arrived that morning to deliver her daily issue of the Bunbunmaru Newspaper. That girl never knew when to give up or take holiday. The headline of that day was that the Human Village was completely lost and the Manic had completely taken over the whole place. It didn't exactly help morale when every knew how close the Human Village was in proximity to Eientei. The worry grew so bad that Eirin had to postpone the Moon Festival for the next full moon, which hadn't been done in a long time.

"Reisen!" Eirin called from the inside. Reisen stopped hugging Tewi and smiled at her. Tewi smiled back and walked away.

Reisen walked into Eirin's office and said, "Yes?"

"How are things outside?"

"Oh, they're as good as could be expected." Reisen replied.

"Are you feeling sick at all?" She asked.

"Ah, no. I feel fine." Reisen said. Eirin had been freaking out about this since the whole scare of these so-called 'Manic' started. One could say she grew obsessed with the topic of them.

"Okay." Eirin said, sounding as though she did not believe her.

"Eirin, I don't think you should be stressing out about this thing like you do." Reisen said. "It's kind of concerning."

"Sorry." Eirin said, still writing at her desk. "But you can imagine someone with the same occupation as I stressing out about this, right? It's just a medical obsession. I've never seen something as this."

"None of us have but we still keep going on and working."

"Yes, I suppose." Eirin sat quietly for a minute, not writing. "Reisen, may I ask a favor of you?"

Reisen was surprised by the sudden question, "Oh, sure. I mean, yes."

"Um." Eirin put her quill down. "Never mind."

"No, tell me. What is it?"

"It's kind of dangerous. I don't want you to get hurt." Eirin said.

Reisen think she knew what the question was, "What do you want me to do?"

"Um." Eirin turned around in her stool, the bags under her eyes evident.. "Do you think you could bring one of those things to me?"

"What things? Those Manic?" Reisen said, angrily.

"Please don't call them that. For all I know, they may just be sick. I need a specimen to research." Eirin said, pleading to Reisen.

"No! No way!" Reisen yelled. "Those things are dangerous! You'll get hurt if you try and research them."

"I know how to properly handle a body. All I'm asking for is one. Please, Reisen."

"No! What if you get hurt? I don't want that on my head."

"Reisen, I'm a woman of medicine. I know how to be careful when handling dangerous things. You don't have to worry."

Reisen looked at her. If anyone could learn anything about these things it would be Eirin. "Just one?"

"Just one." Eirin sighed a sigh of relief.

"Does it have to be alive?" Reisen asked.

"Preferably." Eirin said.

"Ugh," Reisen scoffed. "Okay, but how am I going to bring one in without getting attention?"

Eirin scratched her chin. "That's a good question. For now, just try and tie it up just outside of Eientei and when it's done, just call me out and I'll check it out."

"Alright." Reisen said. This was going to be quite the night.

"Just make sure you're prepared." Eirin said. "Do you have your spellcards?"

"Yes." Reisen reached and took out her spellcards from her suit pocket. "See?"

"Good."

Eirin walked over to a cupboard on the other side of her office and took out a couple of yards of rope. Reisen also saw different kinds of tubes and threads. The rope must have been used for clotting purposes, Reisen thought. She pulled on both sides to test the strength. It was more than capable of holding one of those things down to a tree. She handed it to Reisen. "Good luck, Reisen."

"I'll be back." Reisen put her shoes on and left Eirin's office.

...

She walked down the hall and opened the outside door. Things were more or less the same as they had been since she left. The rabbits were hammering away at their buckets, the mochi sticking to their hammers as they pulled them out. So oblivious to the danger outside.

Reisen left through a break in the bamboo thicket and ventured outside Eientei. It wouldn't do to stay too close to Eientei on the off chance that she was seen by a wandering rabbit, so she walked further outside. Soon she heard the moaning from a few wandering Manic close to Eientei. Reisen was scared how close they were to Eientei. All it would take is one smart Manic to waltz further into the forest and make its way into Eientei then all hell would break loose. She got off the trail and went into the bushes. She followed the sound of the moaning and saw three of them roaming aimlessly. Jet black hair and almost glow in the dark teeth, sharp as nails. This was it. She stuck her index and middle finger toward one's head, using her thumb as a sight. Closing one eye, she inhaled then exhaled. Then she shot a blast from her fingers.

A large mist of blood sprayed from its head, ejecting gray matter in every which way. It fell lifelessly into a kneeling position. The others didn't seem to notice and if they did, they didn't care much. She took aim once again at another's head and shot. The shot found its way clean in the middle of the Manic's forehead and the shot exited in the back of its head. It fell face-first onto the ground. Reisen broke from cover and ran up to the last one, getting it's attention. The Manic started to sprint toward Reisen, but she stepped to her left and left a leg in the way of the Manic, tripping it. She pressed it's struggling head into the ground and used her other free hand to tie it's arms to it's side. The Manic's skin was cold and sweaty, a feeling Reisen didn't like at all. She then got it up and started walking back toward Eientei, leading it with the rope.

The Manic then jumped forward and sank it's teeth into Reisen's suit shoulder. It ripped the fabric.

"Ack!" Reisen yelped. She pushed the Manic in front of her and felt around her shoulder. No break in the skin. Thank goodness. Instead, she made the Manic lead her.

...

Reisen could hear the hustle and bustle of Eientei from meters away and decided that her spot at that time was a good place to tie it to a tree. After finishing the knot, she went into the brush and toward Eirin's office.

"Hey, I'm back." Reisen said. Eirin was at her desk then turned around, her eyes wide.

"Your shoulder..." Eirin said, running to her. "You were bit!"

"Nah, it didn't break my undershirt. I'm fine." Reisen said. "It's outside waiting for you."

"Oh, thank the stars..." Eirin rubbed her cheek. "Okay, shall we make our way toward it then?"

"Uh, sure." Reisen thought she was done with the Manic but it seemed Eirin had other plans involving her.

...

"My, it's uglier up close." Eirin said.

" **Uwaaargh! Graaaaaagh!"** The Manic was screaming frantically. It's teeth made a loud snapping noise.

"Are you sure about this?" Reisen said. "And you don't think they can hear the screams of this thing, do you?"

"Yes. I have to work on it." Eirin said. "As for the rabbits, I think this is far enough from any of their ears."

"Alright... If you say so." Reisen stared at the Manic for a long time. It's hair was a pitch black and skin a pasty grey. It's eyes were a bright red. Reisen felt sad for it.

"Try not to think about it too much. They can't get us in here. They're too far away." Eirin said.

"I don't know. This Manic wasn't that far from Eientei." Reisen said.

"Hm." Eirin took out a scalpel and pressed it toward its head and sliced down. "Ngh..."

"Don't...!" Reisen started to say, but her voice trailed off. "...get too close to its mouth..."

"It's okay. I'm just trying to cut a piece of his skin off." Eirin looked at the small strip of skin on her scalpel. The blood showed no hint of red. It was as black as the Manic's hair.

"Well?" Reisen spoke up.

"This thing doesn't have blood cells. It's blood is gelatinous. How is it even moving?" Eirin was talking to herself.

"Huh?" Reisen said. "Wow, it does look like jelly."

"With blood like this, you'd expect it to be bloated and unable to move." Eirin said. She then reached in her little bag and pulled out a pair of pliers. Reisen was alarmed.

"You're not going to do what I think you are, are you?" Reisen asked.

"Yes, I must. I'm going to have to take a look at its teeth back at my office." Eirin placed one of the teeth of the Manic in between the pliers. "Well, here we go..."

Eirin started to pull and the Manic's mouth started to bleed. It screamed a deafening scream and started to wriggle in the ropes. It tried to bite Eirin's hand, but she moved with it and kept her hand clear from the Manic's mouth. Finally, she pulled out a bloody tooth in between her pliers'.

"Okay, I think that's good enough." Eirin said, looking at the tooth then back at Reisen. "Um, Reisen we're done here. If you could..." She glanced over at the Manic.

"Oh, okay." Reisen pointed two fingers at it's head and shot. Grey matter ejected from it's head everywhere and a splatter of blood covered the bark of the tree. The Manic's head looked down and it's body went limp. Only the rope was holding it up.

"Thank you." Eirin said, not looking at the violent scene at the tree. "Come on let's go."

Reisen looked back at the Manic, thinking about the life it lived. It dressed like someone from the Human Village. A dark blue house kimono ordained with waves and fishes. It's hair was black and it's skin was a pasty grey, but its eyes lost its color. Turning from a bright red to a pitch black. Reisen felt a tear welling up in her eyes, then she turned around and follow Eirin back to Eientei.

 **Teatime and Wait...**


	5. Jiro II

**Jiro**

 **Road to Eientei**

"Ugh..." Jiro groaned. He knew he shouldn't have eaten that squid bun. It tasted funky but he didn't think twice about it. Soon after, he got a terrible stomach ache. It was going away, but not fast enough.

The night in the caravan was an uncomfortable one. He woke up with a huge crick in his neck and a pain in his back. Jiro took a serving knife as a weapon from the cooler to protect himself. It wouldn't do much against a horde of them he knew, but it was better than nothing. A sign could be seen on the side of the road and it confirmed his suspicious: he was headed toward the Bamboo Forest of the Lost and headed toward Eientei, the hidden village in bamboo. It was his only hope that people were still alive there. If they weren't he would most likely starve or dehydrate before he found anyplace else. If any Manic wandered into the Forest, it would take them ages to find Eientei. Lucky for Jiro, he knew exactly where to go.

He was glad the Forest wasn't like the Forest of Magic, where there was danger in every corner. The thickets blocked out the sun, but not completely. In the Forest of Magic, he'd be lucky if he could see two feet in front of him. The creek that ran by the side of the trail was running clean water and Jiro remembered what his father told him about drinking running water and still water. He cupped water in his hands and brought it to his mouth. It was nice and cold and just what he needed. Perhaps he could just live the rest of his days out in the Bamboo Forest of the Lost until this whole thing blew over, he thought. After a short break, he continued walking. Since there was a lot of people getting lost in the Forest, the people of Eientei made signs in the shape of arrows pointing to Eientei and to the exit of the Forest. He followed the sign to Eientei.

A shuffling came from the bushes and Jiro turned around, knife in hand. Then the moaning started. A woman dressed in a pink bloodstained yukata started to sprint toward him. Jiro was surprised that they could run. The Manic grabbed Jiro by the shoulders but tripped on its own feet and fell. Jiro then jumped on top of it and pressed his knife against the side of the head. It only broke it's skin but the knife didn't go through the skull. The Manic started to scream frantically and squirm underneath him. The Manic then found a way to get out of Jiro's grasp and get on top of him. Her snapping teeth were less than a few inches from his face. Smalls beads of saliva wetting his face.

Jiro then saw nothing but red. The screaming had stopped. A sharp hot pain was welling up in his arm. When he wiped the blood off of his face with his left arm, he could see that the Manic had a small hole in its head. He looked at the arm where the pain was at and saw that he had a hole in his right arm. The pain was unbearable. It started to flare up in pain.

"Oh no! Oh no oh no oh no!" A girls voice rang out not too far away. "Hey! Don't close your eyes please! Keep them open!"

"Agh! Shut up! I'm not dying! I'm in pain!" Jiro yelled. His vision turned foggy. "Ugh..."

"Here!" The girl moved Jiro's arm over her shoulder and lifted him up. She was unusually strong. They started to walk. "I got you. Come on." She pressed her body close to his to keep him upright. Jiro started to stumble then he tripped and hit his head on the ground.

"Hey...!" Was the last thing he heard before he blacked out.

...

 _Trickle... Tok! Trickle... Tok!_

The sound of the bamboo water fountain woke him up with its rhythmic loud ticking. Jiro rubbed his eyes and saw that he was in a futon. The room was lined with tatami and a sliding door as an entrance. He felt like he was in the inns of the Human Village. He looked around for a little then felt a sharp pain when he tried to stretch. He looked at his arm and saw that a bandage was wrapped around his arm underneath his yukata. Some red dotted the bandage center. He groaned in pain. Almost instantly, stumbling was heard outside and the sliding door shot open.

"Hey! Are you alright?!" The girl from before was at the door. Something he didn't notice before is that she had rabbit ears. "Oh..."

"Huh?" Jiro was taken by surprise. "Who- Wha-"

"I know I know. You're confused. It's alright you're safe now." She said.

"Am I in Eientei?" Jiro asked.

"Yes, I patched you up. I hit you pretty good."

" _You_ hit me pretty good?"

"Yeah, I meant to shoot the Manic in the head but it went through."

"Shoot?" Jiro hadn't heard that verb before. "What do you mean by shoot?"

"Oh." The girl pointed two fingers to the ceiling. "My spellcards can let me expel these red things called bullets. That's called shooting. I meant to shoot it but when it went through, it hit you."

"Oh..." Jiro could still feel the pain burning in his arm. "It's okay I'm good now."

The girl let out a sigh of relief. "I'm glad." An awkward silence took over. "I'm Inaba Reisen. What's your name?"

"I'm Jiro. Nice to meet you." Jiro bowed his head.

"That's a nice name." Reisen smiled. She moved her hair behind her ears. "Um, would you like some tea?"

Oh boy, Reisen found out Jiro's weakness. Jiro tried to hide his excitement. "Um, sure. Thank you."

"Alright then. I shall be back!" Reisen got up and walked out the room. After three minutes, she came back with a teapot and two cups. The teapot was steaming from the spout and the smell of mint was strong.

 _"Oh man... She made mint tea, too! My favorite!"_ Jiro thought.

"I hope you like mint tea. It grows in abundance here so we're never really short of it." Reisen poured tea into Jiro's cup.

"I love mint tea. Thank you." Years of hot tea drinking made Jiro's mouth immune to the burning. He upended the cup and finished it in three gulps. He exhaled heavily. "Thank you."

"No problem!" Reisen smiled. Jiro looked at her and for the first time since the outbreak started, he felt safe. Though it may not last for long, he thought, it might as well make his stay at Eientei comfortable. He laid down in his futon.

"Are you tired?" Reisen asked. "If you want I can leave."

"You can leave if you want. I could use someone to talk to." Jiro said.

"Well, what would you like to talk about?" Reisen asked.

"Anything." Jiro felt at ease with Reisen. Maybe it's because she had been the first person alive he had seen in a while, or maybe the fact that she's just good at talking to people. The sun was going down now, and as Jiro turned to look at the window he saw a speck beyond the bamboo chutes. It was Lily making her rounds. Jiro wondered what it was that made her so motivated to warn people of curfew. It didn't concern him, anymore. He was safe now in Eientei. He turned and continued his conversation with Reisen.

 **Teatime and wait...**


	6. Lily White

**Lily White**

 **Gensokyo Skies**

This work was proving too much on Lily White and it was certainly taking its toll. Her hair was white and rough. He could feel the weight of the bags under her eyes and the weight of the matted feathers on her wings.

 **"Curfew is now in effect. It is highly recommended you stay indoors and fortify as best as you can."** Lily said. **"Repeat: Curfew is now in effect. It is highly recommended you stay indoors and fortify as best as you can."**

It was pointless to even give the warning to the Human Village anymore. Everyone there was probably dead. She guessed it was on the off chance that someone was still alive, that they should hear her warning. She saw the first signs of the Manic, as she called them, coming out of the woodwork. They limped aimlessly through the roads. Some walked, some crawled, some sprinted and screamed. If she looked hard enough, she could see where they were bitten.

After she finished her rounds, she flew down to the Radio Tower. The thing was covered in moss, obviously showing its age from when it first came to Gensokyo from the outside world. A hallway was carved into the tree growing inside of the Radio Tower, Lily walked inside. She walked downstairs.

Down...

Down...

Down until she reached a rock. Lily pushed her whole body onto the rock, trying to move it. She was getting too weak for this. The rock eventually gave way and she walked inside. She turned on the oil lamp by the entrance.

 _"Hm... Aya must not be back yet."_ Lily set the lamp by her bed and left the entrance unblocked in case Aya came back.

 _Ptok!_

"!"

Lily turned around with the lamp in hand. She listened for a bit. It must've been something shifting out of place, Lily thought. After all, they were living inside the tree a bit slanted.

 _"Ngh..."_ A girl's voice whimpered. _"Lily?"_

"Huh?" Lily moved a mound of blankets out of the way. Aya was underneath, left arm bloodied. "No..."

"Put the blankets back... I'm freezing." Aya said, skin white and pasty.

"Wha-" It took everything inside Lily not to lose it. "What happened?"

"I was stupid..." Aya tried to chuckle. "Please, put the blankets back on me."

"What happened?!" Lily yelled, not putting the blankets back.

"Ah, y'know... Trying to take pictures up close and personal. What's her face... Uh... Reimu, yeah Reimu. She always did say that this would be my undoing." Aya's voice was labored and Lily knew that each breath Aya took was causing her pain. "Now put the blankets back on."

"I didn't-" Lily's voice was breaking. "I didn't expect to come back to this."

"I didn't expect _you_ to come back to this either. Fate has a way of working itself out in weird ways." Aya chuckled.

"This isn't funny, Aya." Lily dropped her head. "You're going to die. You've seen what their bites can do."

"Who knows? I'll probably live. It could happen." Aya clutched the closest blanket near her. "Where were you all day? I haven't seen you since this morning."

"I was just flying around, looking for survivors like you said. Aya, _when_ did you get bit?"

"Oh, a few hours ago. Three or four. While I was taking pictures, one came behind me. I can't believe I didn't hear it, but oh well. It bit my arm and I flew away. Soon as I knew it, my arm started to turn weird colors." Aya said, almost proud of her bite.

"Why..?" Lily wiped her eyes with her sleeve. "Oh, man... Why?"

"Meh, I'm not that pissed at dying. I've lived a super long life. I've wanted to die for a while. Don't be sad for me." Aya smiled at her.

"What do you want me to do? Be happy for you? You're the first friend I've had since this whole thing started and now you're dying. I can't be happy about that!" Lily yelled.

"Woah, Lily. Calm down. I didn't ask you to be happy for me, just not to be sad. There's going to be lots of people dying now, I just happen to be another one." Aya wiped the thick beads of sweat from her brow. She tossed and turned in her futon.

"I just met you and now you're being taken away... You're right, fate does have a weird way of working itself out." Lily said. "What will happen to the Bunbunmaru Newspaper?"

"Damn, I hadn't thought of that. Hatate can't take over, she's dead. Who knows where Momiji is..." Aya closed her eyes. "I guess I gotta file for bankruptcy."

"Bankruptcy? What's that."

"Nothing." Aya exhaled.

"Aya?!" Lily cried.

"Shut up. I'm not dead yet, I'm tired." Aya said.

"Oh..."

"Although..." Aya said, rasping. "You might want to go somewhere else. When I do die, I'll become one of them."

"There's nowhere else to go, though."

"Sure there is. I'm sure not everyone is dead. Fly around to people's houses and see if they'll let you in. Try Reimu. Or the other one... Uh... Hm... Marisa. Yeah, try Marisa..."

"Reimu? Marisa?"

Aya could barely talk now. "Yeah... Try them..."

"This-" Lily wiped more tears from her eyes. "You idiot! You damn idiot!" Lily blew up at Aya.

Aya didn't reply. She couldn't. She let Lily vent. After all, it was Aya's fault that Aya got bit in the first place. Lily called her every obscenity in the book and yelled to the top of her lungs. Aya smiled.

"...And you choose now of all times to get bitten?! You son of-" Lily stopped. She looked at Aya. Her stare was blank and she was smiling. "Aya?" Aya didn't move. Lily nudged her shoulder. "Oi, Aya."

Aya's eyes were barely open and were a light green. Her skin was drenched in sweat. Her clothing sticking to her sweaty body, and her blood coagulated at the bite. Lily felt her neck for a pulse. It was unbelievably squishy. "No..."

Lily slumped over Aya's body and cried out. "Aya..." She stayed there for a few minutes, crying her eyes out on top of Aya's corpse. Lily could still smell the faint smell of roses on her. Aya let out a postmortem groan.

"Huuuuuuuuuuhhhh..."

Lily recoiled. "Uwah!" Lily had thought Aya reanimated into a Manic, but she still lay motionless.

Lily got up and went for the entrance. She took the candle and blew it out. Looking at the rock, then back into the room, Lily wiped her eyes once more. She then pushed the rock over the entrance. Trapping Aya inside once she came back. Aya had turned faster than Lily had expected because as soon as she was halfway down the wooden hallway, she could hear moaning and scratching on the rock. She sounded sad.

"Goodbye, Aya. I'll go find them." Lily turned and said. She walked out of the Radio Tower into the night.

It was past curfew and she was all alone without shelter.

 **Teatime and wait...**


	7. Sakuya

**Sakuya**

 **Outside of The Scarlet Devil Mansion**

"No... Please... I don't want to die yet."

"I'm sorry, little one. I have to do this. You wouldn't understand. Frankly, neither do I."

"Please. I beg of you. Have mercy. I won't tell anyone about this!"

"You're making it harder on yourself. Just stop crying and close your eyes."

This fairy was just one of many. She did as she was told and closed her eyes. Stopping time, Sakuya hurled a sterling knife at the head of the helpless fairy. When time resumed, the knife found its target and the fairy fell to the ground, twitching. Sakuya looked at her. The fairy's left eye was half opened and the right eye was closed. Her mouth was twitching, trying to suck in air. Sakuya must have hit far back into the pons of the fairy's brain. She hoisted the fairy onto her shoulders and felt blood trickle onto her shoulder, staining her white sleeve. Sakuya was thankful that they weren't too far away from the Mansion.

...

"Mistress, I'm back." Sakuya said, closing the foyer door in a loud boom. Remilia flew down the stairs and landed in front of Sakuya, the look of excitement in her eyes.

"Welcome back, who did you get this time?" Remilia asked.

"Just another fairy, nothing too special." Sakuya said. She threw down the fairy's lifeless body. It stopped twitching halfway to the mansion. Her eyes were just losing their color.

"I guess it'll do. Thank you very much." Remilia jumped on top of the corpse and bit its neck.

"Mistress, not here please." Sakuya turned away, holding her mouth.

"Why not?" Remilia muffled. "It's not bothering anyone."

 _It's bothering me_ , Sakuya wanted to say but she thought against it. "Then if you'll excuse me." Sakuya bowed deeply.

"Yes yes. You can go." Remilia shooed her away, mouth still on the corpses' neck.

Sakuya opened the door and didn't look back to the violent sucking noises happening behind her. When she was outside, she inhaled heavily. She had grown nauseous at what had just happened. While it would have been completely in Sakuya's right to kill a fairy if it were causing her trouble, this fairy had died only because she was needed as food. Remilia told her to think of it as an animal hunting its food, but through a third party. Sakuya ran toward a tree, hand over her mouth. She grabbed the tree, sinking her nails into it and vomited. She pulled many muscles in her back and legs while doing so. After what had seemed like an eternity, the vomiting stopped. Sakuya wiped her lips with her wrist and looked down. There was nothing but red. She had nothing to vomit since she had stopped eating after Remilia started to ask her to bring her food. Before this disaster happened with the people of Gensokyo, Remilia would have been more than happy to go out by herself to hunt, but now she was trying to play it safe and let Sakuya do all the grunt work.

Sakuya walked back to the gate entrance and noticed Meiling slumped on the floor, sleeping. It was a small miracle how she hadn't gotten bit by one of those things during one of her siestas. It seemed like she had only started to nap recently because she wasn't snoring. Sakuya nudged her to wake her up.

"Hey."

No response.

"Hey."

Meiling groaned, not wanting to be disturbed. Sakuya scoffed and walked away. When she walked back inside, the shell of a fairy was on the floor. Remilia was sitting next to it.

"Finished?" Sakuya asked.

"I want another one." Remilia said.

"My lady, getting another one would be dangerous."

"Why? Those things don't come out during the day anyway. Well, not in the sun. What's the problem?"

"Yes, but... What if one fights back?"

"Are you afraid of a fairy fight back?" Remilia teased. "I thought I took you for a brave woman, not a craven. Besides, it's still day time. You won't find any of them wandering outside of the shade of the forest. As long as you steer clear of the woods, you'll be fine."

Sakuya closed her eyes. She was right. As long as Sakuya watched her distance from the woods, she would be fine. "Okay, I shall get you another one." She turned away and walked toward the door.

...

 _"No. I do understand why I have to do this. I have to do this to feed my mistress. She took me in and housed me."_ Sakuya said. She walked toward the small brush near the Mansion where she had seen many fairies in the past, staying away from the forest. After a short trek, she heard giggling not too far from where she was. Following the giggling, Sakuya hid behind a bush and peeked over. Three fairies were running after each other, laughing. They looked young. Sakuya rubbed her eyes, not ready for what was going to happen next.

 _"Forgive me."_ She whispered.

Sakuya broke from cover and yelled to get the fairies' attention. They turned their heads toward her, then Sakuya stopped time. She threw one knife at each, aiming toward the head. Resuming time, the sickening sound of cold steel penetrating skin rang out. All three of the fairies' fell to the ground at the same time. They all had a look of shock as all of the other fairies did. Dark red blood pooled on the ground. Sakuya then realized she had killed more than she could carry. Would Remilia get angry for killing too much? If anything, she would be too hungry to even care and finish sucking the blood of all three of them by the end of the day.

Sakuya hoisted two of them on her shoulders, she was lucky they were so light. Carrying a third one, however, wouldn't happen. There was no room in her arms for a third one. She'd come back for it later.

...

Opening the door to the foyer, Sakuya saw that Remilia was no where to be seen. Perhaps she had gone back into her chambers, Sakuya thought. She threw down the two bodies and left. When she arrived back to the clearing, the other fairy was gone. The puddle of blood still there where its head was. Sakuya looked around frantically before coming to a conclusion: someone else took the other body. She put two knives in between her fingers and looked around, listening. Nothing but the wind.

 _"..."_

 _Woosh!_

 _"..."_

Suddenly, Sakuya heard a rustle in the bushes by the forest. She threw the knives and a squelch of blood came from behind the bush. When she walked toward it, she saw that one of the monsters was hit on the arm, pinned to a tree. The poor thing couldn't have been more than 10 years old. Her hair showed signs of being brown once upon a time, tied up in pigtails. She wore a pink yukata was cherry blossom petals all over it. A yukata native to the Human Village. The thing screamed and tried grabbing Sakuya with its only free arm. Sakuya drew another knife and threw it toward its head. The girls head went limp, coagulated blood drooling out of the spaces in between the knife. Sakuya pulled the knife out of the girl's arm and head. She fell down, slumped on the ground in a fetal position. Sakuya saw the other fairy that she killed standing behind the tree. This Manic must have went into the sun to get her. She looked at the girl and saw evidence of burns on her skin. Looks like the sun doesn't react too well to the skin of a Manic. Sakuya wiped the blood off of her knives with a kerchief and walked toward the Mansion.

Remilia was going to have to make do with two fairies instead of three.

 **Teatime and wait...**


	8. Reisen II

**Reisen**

 **Eientei**

"Reisen!" Someone was calling out to her, as she sat on the steps to the mansion. She raised her head and saw Tewi running to her.

"Tewi, what's up?"

"So, what's this I hear about a man from the Human Village resting here?" Tewi asked, taking a seat next to Reisen on the wooden porch.

"Oh, it was just some Human coming up to Eientei. I accidentally shot him, mistaking him for a Manic." Reisen couldn't help but giggle. "Oops."

"Where is he now? In the mansion?" Tewi asked.

"Yep. He's resting now. I wouldn't bother him." Reisen said, rubbing her head. She had had a migraine since the morning.

"Headache?" Tewi asked. She patted Reisen in the back.

"Yeah. It's a pretty bad one." Reisen groaned. She rubbed her temples in a circular motion. "I'm gonna head inside for some medicine. Eirin'll have something."

"'Kay. See ya." Tewi said.

...

Reisen walked down the hallway and walked past Jiro's room. She stopped and walked up the door and knocked. At first, there was no noise but after a second knock, she could hear the shuffling of feet. "Yeah?"

"Um, are you alive?" Reisen joked.

"No. I'm a Manic." Jiro joked back, stifling a laughter. Footsteps grew louder and he opened the sliding door. His hair was a mess. "What's up?"

"Nothing. I'm just on my way to get some pills for a headache I have. Are you alright?" Reisen looked at his bandaged arm.

"Yeah. I'm gradually regaining feeling in my arm. I still can't move it like I used to, but I'm guessing it'll take a long time before that happens." Jiro lifted his arm and pulled back his yukata sleeve. His arm was turning back to its normal color. He had lost so much blood after he had been shot that it turned into a sickly grey-green.

"I'm glad." Reisen smiled. "Now if you'll excuse me, I'm gonna go." She bowed deeply.

"Alright. Feel better." Jiro said.

"Thank you. You, too." Reisen said back. Jiro bowed once more and closed the door.

She knocked on Eirin's door and announced her entrance. Eirin was slumped over her desk, snoring softly. The poor lady worked day and night, studying the disease of the Manic and taking care of the rabbit's as well. Possibly at the same time. Reisen saw the sharp teeth of that Manic they had pulled out a few days ago in different places across the desk. She swore that at night they would glow in the dark. Reisen walked up to Eirin and saw that she had been writing in a paper. She saw an intricate drawing of the teeth, complete with the ridges and roots. Lines pointed to another drawing. This drawing looked like a bean with circles inside it. After looking at it a bit longer, she realized that it was in the shape of a bacteria. This bacteria had numerous zigzag-shaped tails around it's body. The middle part looked had other bacteria in it. Reisen nudged Eirin to wake her up. After a few nudges, she woke up and rubbed her eyes.

"Hm... Hello, Reisen. How may I help you?"

"Hi. I have a headache that's killing me. Do you have any of that asbrin stuff that can help with it?"

"Aspirin." Eirin corrected. "And yes, I do." Eirin got up and opened a cupboard, pulling out an orange bottle. She opened it and two pills dropped into her hand. She handed it to Reisen. "Make sure to take water with it or it'll be hard to swallow."

"Okay. Thank you." Reisen looked at Eirin. "Is everything alright?"

"Oh, this stuff with those things. It's all very complicated to me. I've never seen a strain like this before." Eirin showed her the drawing of the bacteria. "I looked at the tooth in a microscope and saw this. Its what's transferred from a bite. This bacteria looks big enough to overpower any blood cells, red and white. My guess is that this bacteria is what replaces red blood cells and makes the blood coagulated like in that Manic we saw." Eirin saw how excited she was getting and regained her composure. "In short, I seem to be making progress in figuring out what this actually is. Right now, I'm trying to find antibiotics that can kill this bacteria. Once I _do_ find one, I'll give it to anyone that's alive or has been bitten."

"What about the Manics that are outside?" Reisen asked. It was a good question, she thought. Surely this miracle cure that Eirin was trying to find would work on those who haven't turned yet, not those who already have.

"Yeah, I thought about that." Eirin's shoulders dropped, obviously losing any excitement she previously had. "I don't think they can ever be cured. They're dead. Their brain is dead, but not dead. Does that make sense?"

"No." Reisen said bluntly.

"Yeah, I thought so. What I'm trying to say is that if they're brain dead they can never be brought back to their normal selves. The only humane thing to do is to put them out of their misery before they hurt, kill, and turn someone else."

"So I should kill any Manic I see." Not that Reisen was against it. It _was_ what she had been doing for a while.

"Yes. It should be easy for you without getting too close."

"Yeah, I'll be fine. It should be easy for you, too. You have your bow." Reisen said.

"Yes, I suppose. I'm not really used to blood, though..." Eirin said.

"You're a doctor. Weren't you around blood all the time during the war?" Reisen asked.

"Yes, but it doesn't mean I'm used to the sight of blood." Eirin said.

"I suppose." Reisen looked back at her hand with aspirin in it. "Anyway, I'm gonna go and get some water with these. I'll see you later."

"Ah, right. Don't let me keep you." Eirin waved.

Reisen went to the bamboo chute room and ladled water into a cup. She popped the two pills and drank water to help it go down smoothly. She sat for a while and stared at the bamboo chute as it dispensed water into a wooden bucket. The process of the dispensing of water proved mesmerizing to Reisen, so much so that ten minutes passed before she realized she had been staring longer than she had intended to. She just couldn't help but think... Thinking about the Manic and how something could have happened so suddenly without anyone catching it early on. She couldn't help but also think about what _exactly_ caused this disease, if she could call it that. A strain is what Eirin called it. Was there someone else who had been experimenting with medicine and could it have just gone awry, or was this deliberate? It is possible that this could be another incident, though Reisen had to admit it was the worst one to hit Gensokyo in her years of living in it. Finally, she wondered... Was the same thing happening in the Outside World? If not, Reimu had to make sure to make it her duty to keep the barrier up and running at all times. If she somehow failed to do that, or worse die, then not only would Gensokyo be affected but a world at least 100 times the size of Gensokyo would be affected. Reisen didn't know exactly how big this Outside World was, but she knew that millions, if not billions of people would die. She dusted her behind and made her way to the door.

She wondered if Reimu was indeed alive. The girl lived by herself and if by some disaster they came to her in droves, she probably wouldn't be able to take them on all by herself. Maybe Reisen didn't give her enough credit. This was the girl who saved Gensokyo countless times in otherwise impossible odds. She could hold her own.

Reisen closed the door and walked back to the porch where Tewi was no doubt shouting orders to the other rabbits. She needed something to distract her from this end-of-the-world scenario.

 **Teatime and wait...**


	9. Marisa II

**Marisa**

 **The Forest of Magic**

 _Crash! Crash!_

The Manic had been slamming against the door for quite some time. Luckily, they couldn't get to the windows of Marisa's house because trees blocked them. Looking at it now, Marisa would have gladly traded a nice view into the forest for a tree blocking the easiest way into her house any day. The moaning grew louder as the night went on. Alice paced back and forth, obviously stressed that she couldn't go home to check up on her dolls and that death lay just outside that door. All it took was for the door to give way.

"Alice, just relax. The sun will come up in a while." Marisa said.

"That doesn't matter! It's always dark in the forest! It might as well be night every day!" Alice, clearly flustered, started stomping harder on the floor. "I'm gonna open that door and just take them on!"

"You don't wanna do that. Trust me." Marisa said, not believing that she would do such a thing. She didn't listen and numerous times she looked at the door. Finally, Marisa got up and walked toward Alice. "Hey! Stop it! You're stressing me out and you're stressing Star out. Just cut it out already!"

Alice looked at Marisa in shock. Her otherwise cool and calm demeanor changed when someone was annoying her. Alice had never seen this side of Marisa before. "Right. Sorry." Alice stopped pacing the room and sat down across from Marisa. "Sorry." She said again.

"No, it's fine." Marisa said, now feeling guilty. "I'm sorry for blowing up like that. I'm just not used to this kind of incident happening. It's the first of its kind I've seen."

"Be honest, when have we ever seen incidents that even remotely resemble each other? One time, it can be a really big red moon and the next it can be endless spring."

"Yeah, you're right. Still, I'd wager to say that this is the worst incident Gensokyo has ever seen."

"Indeed. I would say it is." Alice looked out the window, seeing the Manic behind the tree.

"Lily White called them Manic. It's a fitting name." Marisa said.

"Yes. It is." Alice pulled the curtain closed. "I wonder how Lily is. To be honest, I wonder how everyone is. Reimu, Yuuka, even that ice fairy."

"I haven't heard from or about Reimu. The girl is pretty resilient so I'm not worried about her. When this dies down I'll go look for her."

Suddenly, the stairs creaked loudly. Star walked down rubbing both of her eyes. "They're still at it?"

"Hi, Star. Yeah they're still at it." Marisa said.

"My goodness. Isn't it morning already?" Star asked.

"Judging from the sky, it's just turning dawn. If they're not gone in an hour or so I'll get rid of them."

"How are you gonna do that?" Alice asked.

Marisa held up her mini-hakkero. "With this."

"Surely you're not gonna use that on them. Your house would be wrecked." Alice said.

"What is that?" Star asked, looking at it from different angles.

"It's my mini-hakkero. I use it to blast things into oblivion. Its my pride and joy." Marisa bragged.

"And you're gonna use it on them? Isn't that a bit... excessive?" Star rubbed her eyes to get the last bit of sleep out of her eyes.

"It wouldn't be the first time my house got wrecked because of an incident. I'll just rebuild later. Let's wait a bit."

"Right." Star said, sitting down next to Alice.

...

"Would you say it's been an hour?" Alice looked out the window at the sky.

"Give or take. Ya think I should use it now?" Maria held up her mini-hakkero, obviously anxious to use it.

"Your call." Alice closed the curtain.

"All right. I'm gonna do it. It's been a while since I last used this thing anyway." Marisa turned the side of the mini-hakkero and it made a loud _click!_

"Star, come here. You may want to stand back." Alice pressed against the wall behind Marisa. "Right here.

"Ah. Right." Star braced against the wall.

"Ready?" Marisa asked.

"Ready." Alice and Star said.

"Alright... Here goes." Marisa aimed the mini-hakkero at the door and a light started to build in the middle of the block. Her arm started to shake from the mini-hakkero vibrating violently. Trying to steady it for a precise shot, Marisa held her wrist with her free hand. "Master...!"

"I've been on the business end of that thing," Alice shouted to Star. "Let me tell you, that thing burns like nothing I've ever felt in my life!"

"Is that so!" Star shouted to Alice. She could feel herself being pushed against the wall from the shock wave the light was making, and it hadn't even been shot yet. Star got herself in a more comfortable position, leaning against the wind.

A thin light shot from the mini-hakkero and Marisa's arm stopped shaking. "...SPARK!" The thin light turned into a large cone of light and stars and shot past the door. Marisa's hat went flying from her head onto Alice's face. The light quickly dissipated into a wider cone before completely disappearing. All that was left of what was behind the door were the feet of the Manic sliced clean from the knees from the ray.

"Come on. We gotta go now. If there were any Manic nearby, they surely heard the blast." Marisa started toward the door.

Alice moved the hat from her face and gave it back to Marisa. "Yeah, let's go. Come on."

"I'm coming!" Star ran toward the door, following suit behind Alice and Marisa. The run to Alice's house would be at least five minutes from where they were now, if they were lucky there wouldn't be any Manic following them, instead they would be more interested in the noise at Marisa's house.

If they were lucky, those Manic were the only ones in the forest.

 **Teatime and wait...**


	10. Youmu

**Youmu**

 **Hakugyokurou**

"My lady, here is your tea." Youmu set out a plate with tea and cookies.

"Thank you, Youmu." Yuyuko looked at the saucer. "Um, can you also bring some sugar? No, lots of sugar please?"

Youmu was trying not to enforce Yuyuko's otherwise indulgent eating habits, but she was a ghost so it's not like it would change much if she had a little bit of sugar or a lot. Youmu walked to the kitchen and took the pot of sugar from the counter in hand. Her phantom half flew around the sugar pot frantically.

"Stop it. You can't eat this even if you wanted to." Youmu said to it.

She opened the sliding door and rested the pot on the plate with the tea and cookies. Yuyuko smiled sweetly at Youmu.

"Thank you." Yuyuko grabbed the spoon and shoveled a giant portion of sugar into her tea. She stirred it until all of the sugar dissolved in the hot liquid. Myon warbled and flew around Yuyuko's arm.

"My my, she's rather excited today." Yuyuko said, petting Myon on the head.

"Yeah, I guess Myon likes the smell. I dunno." Youmu said, paying no mind to her phantom.

"I imagine it also has to do with the lack of spirits around here." Yuyuko said, not smiling anymore.

"I looked into it. On the surface, there's a disaster going on."

"A 'disaster going on?' You mean, it's still happening?" Yuyuko asked.

"Yeah, apparently something is bringing the dead back to life."

"Jiang Shi?"

"No, these are different. They can't think for themselves. They're technically dead but not. It's hard to describe."

"Then how are they still moving?" Yuyuko asked, rubbing her chin like an old sage.

"I don't know. My guess is that when they come back to life, the body takes the spirit back from the netherworld. It's the only thing that can explain the emptiness around here." Youmu said, blowing on her tea.

"What will we do? The cherry blossoms aren't blooming without them. This place is looking more and more dull each passing day."

"My lady, with all respect, this is worse than just the netherworld looking 'dull'. People on the surface are dying gruesome deaths. One could say that it's the end of the world out there."

"Well, what can we do?" Yuyuko dipped her cookie into her tea.

"I fear that there's nothing we _can_ do." Youmu said.

"Youmu, I know you. I know you want to do something about this. So tell me," Yuyuko had a serious tone in her voice. "What can we do?"

"Lady Yuyuko, this isn't something I can cure. You forget that this is a disease. I'm not a doctor. I can't cure this. It's time like this that we need all of the medics in Gensokyo we can use."

"How about that Eirin lady?" Yuyuko asked.

"Well, she could help. If she's alive, that is." Youmu said.

"How horrible. She lives in the bamboo forest. Any of these dead people walking around would be wandering aimlessly and lost if they even wandered anywhere near there." Yuyuko said. "Maybe you should pay her a visit?"

"And then what? It's not like I can get her to cure this thing overnight."

"No, but you may need her help or she may need you. Even if by some chance she needs your help, don't you think you should?"

"What can I do? Like I said, I'm not a doctor. I can't help her with any of that medicine stuff."

Yuyuko sighed. "Then what will you do here? Out there you have a chance to help the only one who could do anything. Here, you're sitting with me eating cookies and drinking tea. Think about it."

Youmu knew she was right. There was nothing to be done here. Nothing productive anyway. Eirin could probably use all the help she could get and with Youmu there, she could get that help. "Okay, okay. I get it. You're right."

"Aren't I always?" Yuyuko caught herself. "Wait, no. Don't answer that."

"Let's finish our tea. I'll leave right after."

"Leaving already? I meant tomorrow or the day after or something."

"I'd rather not. The sooner I get there, the sooner I can help." Youmu said.

"You're right. Okay, let's finish our tea." Yuyuko sipped her tea loudly.

...

"Ahhhh!" Yuyuko sighed. "Another good cup of tea! Now then, isn't it time for you to go?"

"Wait, I'm not done yet." Youmu finished her last bit of tea. "Okay, now I'm done."

Youmu walked over to the corner of the room and tied her swords around her waist. Yuyuko always liked to watch her when she got ready to go out. Something about her made her look like she was going to battle. Youmu walked over to the genkan and put on her shoes then opened the door.

"Well then, I'll be going." Youmu said.

"Come back to me safely." Yuyuko smiled but Youmu saw something behind that smile. Her lips were quivering slightly. Yuyuko turned around quickly, hiding her crying.

"Lady Yuyuko..." Youmu ran to her. "I'll be back soon. I'll just be gone a few days. You'll see."

"Promise?" Yuyuko's voice cracked.

"I promise." Youmu hugged her tight. "Just wait for me."

"Okay, I believe in you. Come back to me in one piece. I won't forgive you if you don't." Yuyuko hugged her back.

"Right! The last thing I want is for my lady to be mad at me." Youmu broke away from her. "Now, I'll be off."

Yuyuko waved at Youmu. She walked down the steps of the shrine and she was out of sight. Yuyuko fell down to her knees and cried in her kimono sleeve. There was something hurting her.

Hurting her deep inside.

 _"Y-Youmu..."_

She wished Youmu would have spent at least a few more days with her.

 _"Youmu...!"_

That nagging feeling. Yuyuko knew what it was. She tried to deny it, but a part of her knew.

She felt as though that were the last time she would ever see Youmu again.

 **Teatime and wait...**


	11. Sakuya II

**Sakuya**

 **Sakuya's Room**

 _Thursday_

 _Killed two fairies today. Less than usual but its still taking the life of someone. These fairies were happy individuals who weren't hurting anybody but because my mistress was hungry, I had to kill them. 'They were worth more dead than alive,' Lady Remilia would tell me. I'm not used to killing people for another person's gain. It makes me feel like an assassin, and I don't like that feeling. These fairies deserved to live the rest of their short lives in happiness with their other fairy friends. That's wh-_

 ** _BAM!_**

Sakuya heard a loud banging on the foyer door and got up from her desk.

 _ **BAM! BAM!**_

She ran out of her room and heard that the banging was getting faster. She ran back into her room and placed numerous knives side by side in the belt on her leg. Running down the stairs, she saw wood chunks flying from the door. Whoever was banging on the door was trying to break in.

 _"HEAVE!" **BAM!** "HO! HEAVE!" **BAM!**_

"Oh no." Sakuya whispered to herself. "They're after Remi..."

"What's that noise?" Patchouli came up from the stairs. "Are they trying to break in?"

"It seems that way. Patchouli go and get Remilia and keep her safe."

"Are we being attacked?" Patchouli asked.

"I don't know! Just go!" Sakuya snapped. Patchouli sighed and walked up the stairs as if there was nothing to rush her.

 _ **CRASH!**_

The door gave way to a makeshift battering ram comprised of a large piece of a tree tied to wheels. Whoever was at the head of this was rather ingenuitive. Sakuya saw a horde of fairies and humans run into the mansion from behind the battering ram. There was too much for one person to handle.

One person...

Meiling.

A female fairy walked in front of the battering ram and clapped her hands twice. Two muscular humans brought Meiling forward from the back of the battering ram with a potato sack over her head. Her hands were tied behind her back. She was thrown onto the floor, air escaping her lungs as she hit the cold marble floor hard.

"Before you get excited and start throwing knives, I just want you to know that this place is surrounded." The female fairy spoke loud, the acoustics in the foyer made her sound louder. "My name is Mayu. Nice to meet you."

 _'Nice to meet you. How dare she?'_ Sakuya thought.

"We're not here to hurt anyone." The fairy paused. "Actually, I'm wrong. We're here to hurt only one person: the vampire that is said to live here. Just hand her over to us and we'll leave the rest of you including Red over here."

Sakuya looked at the massive crowd of humans and fairies and deduced that she didn't have enough knives to kill even a fraction of them. She couldn't do anything.

"Well? What's it gonna be?" Mayu asked.

"No! Don't do it, Sakuya!" Meiling shouted from behind the sack covering her face.

Mayu kicked Meiling's head with such force that Sakuya swore she heard a crack. Meiling started to cry. "Please... What did we do?"

"Ah, thanks for the reminder, Red. I forgot to tell you why, exactly, we want her. We have reason to believe that the vampire of this house is the cause of death of our fairy friends as well as the disaster that hit Gensokyo recently."

 _What?_

"I mean, the last time people went crazy and started killing each other was when that vampire caused Red Moon Incident. We're just putting two and two together, you know? Now that we've explained, hand her over."

"Sakuya, don't you do it!" Meiling yelled again.

"Hey, get me a knife if we've got one." Sakuya could barely hear Mayu say to a human. "You really don't understand the seriousness of whats going on. You're harboring a criminal to mankind. She could be the end to Gensokyo as we know it."

The human came back with a large carving knife and handed it to Mayu.

"No..." Sakuya saw Mayu press the blade against Meiling's throat.

"How about if I say 'please'? Would you _please_ hand her over?" Mayu pressed the blade harder against Meiling.

"W-why? What proof do you have that the vampire is the cause of all this. You said you have reason to believe. What's the reason?" Sakuya tried to stall. Maybe Remilia would come down and lay waste to these... people.

"Why? We just told you why. The last time people went crazy was when _she_ was at the center of it." Mayu took the knife away from Meiling's throat.

"Please. I can assure you that my mistress is not at the center of it. Just please let her go."

"You can _assure_ us?" Mayu started to giggle. "You hear that guys? She can _assure_ us."

"Please just go away." Sakuya's voice started to crack. For the first time in a long time, she was scared. Terrified was a better word for what she was feeling right now.

"What, we're just supposed to take your word for it? After we just came all this way to find her? Fat chance!" Mayu started laughing hysterically.

Sakuya looked at the humans and fairies. "Please, you know this isn't right. Don't do this. Don't kill someone based on an assumption. Please."

"Don't look to them for pity, big boobs! I'm the one talking to you!" Mayu started to scream at her.

 _'She's crazy... She's absolutely crazy...'_ Sakuya thought.

"So, is that a no? Is that what it is?" Mayu gripped the knife tighter. "IS THAT IT?!"

"N-No! I-" There was no chance of Remilia or Patchouli or _anyone_ come to her rescue.

"Yeah! I'll take that as a no! It's okay, you only just condemned someone to death!" Mayu grinned a sickening grin.

"No!" For once, without Sakuya's intervention, time stopped. The knife snapped slowly toward Meiling's throat, until a noise rang out. She couldn't describe the exact sound of it, but it resembled that of a sigh. Each splat lasted for what felt like hours. A sickening hiss came from Meiling's throat and blood gushed from the small gash that the knife made. Mayu stopped stabbing her throat and let Meiling crash to the floor. She twitched and wiggled on the floor, arms going crazy trying to hold her throat... but she couldn't.

 _"No..."_

Meiling made a noise. She inched her way toward the sound of Sakuya's voice

 _"Sssss... kuya..."_

Time resumed and Sakuya ran toward Meiling's dying body. She removed the sack from her head and saw that the skin on her face was turning pale from the lack of blood. She also noticed that Meiling's eyes were turning blood red. Sakuya hugged her tight.

"No. Don't die. I stab you all the time, you can't die from this. You're the fighting dragon. Dragons don't die." Sakuya threw reassuring sentences out at Meiling, but she knew nothing could save her now. Meiling reached up and grabbed her collar.

 _"Safe... Keep... Remi safe..."_ Meiling let go of her collar and her body eased from tensing.

It was only now that Sakuya could hear Mayu's frantic laughing. Sakuya had been holding her breath, and gritting her teeth. She was holding in a scream that was coming from deep within.

"Oh, what a shame. Maybe we'll come back later and see if you're ready to give her up then. Sound good?" Mayu twirled the knife in her hand.

"I'll kill you. I'll kill you. I'll kill you. I'll kill you." Sakuya repeated to her over and over.

"Nah, you won't kill me." Mayu chuckled. "Take her. I think we can use her."

The two muscular humans came to her and took her by the arms. They kicked the back of her knees and she fell down. They tied her hands down with rope and hoisted her back up. One slapped her in the back of the head. "Walk."

"This side," Mayu pointed to her left side. "Split up and check upstairs. This side, check this floor."

The last thing Sakuya heard before being escorted from her home was the maniacal laughter of Mayu.

She wondered why she didn't fight back. If they were going to force their way in and take Remilia by force, she may as well have taken a few of them before they overpowered her. This Mayu girl...

This Mayu girl...

Sakuya said she hated feeling like an assassin, but she felt she had a new person on her hit list.

And she would make it her life's goal to carry out that hit.

 **Teatime and wait...**


	12. Lily White II

**Lily White**

 **The Road**

"The apple blossoms have fallen in the wiiiiind..." Lily White sang. "By moonlight. By moonlight. Ehhh... Ugh..."

She couldn't walk anymore, she was dying of hunger. It had been one week since she had stopped giving Gensokyo warning of the night. It had been almost two weeks since she had last eaten. Grass could only hold someone over for so long. Lily heard the trickling of water by the side of the road, but she wasn't thirsty. She had drank plenty of water. It was food she needed. She was malnourished as she hadn't had food full of vitamins and minerals. Lily grabbed her stomach, something was coming. Her mouth shot open and threw up the grass she had eaten 10 minutes ago. Lying on the side of the road, she continued singing.

"The Tsugaru girl cried... Over the sad parting..." Lily began to cry. "This is how I'm going to die.

"Get up."

Lily didn't move.

"You're so lazy. Come on, get up."

"Huh?" Lily slowly sat up. "Wha..?"

Aya stood next to her, smiling. Her proud wings stretched out as far as they could go. Her black hair shining in the setting sun.

"You're supposed to be dead..." Lily whispered. She couldn't talk normally anymore. "Why are you here?"

"I am dead. I'm just a figment of your imagination." She said.

"You're not supposed to say that."

"Hey, you're just telling me what to say at this point. " Aya chuckled.

"Right." Lily thought she must have started going crazy. "Just let me die. I'll join you in the afterlife soon."

"Come on now, is that really how you want to die? By _starving?_ I don't think you do."

"I don't. I wanted to die in a cool danmaku battle with someone." Lily said.

"Then why don't you? Get up." Aya said.

"I _can't!_ " Lily yelled with the rest of her voice she had left. "I can't..."

"Try." Aya said. She knelt down next to Lily. "Come on, you can do it."

Lily pushed against the ground to get up. She felt a sharp pain in her stomach and threw up again. She kept going.

"There we go. You got it." Aya whispered to her.

"Hnnnngh!" Lily got to her knees. She put her foot in front of her and got up. "I'm up. I'm up."

"Better get a move on. The Manic will come out any minute now."

Lily started shuffling down the road. The sun burned her pale skin and feet. Lily started to cry. She was probably several miles away from the closest village or town. She couldn't walk that far. Walking a few feet might even prove fatal. Lily made it to a crossroads and fell down again. She felt a sharp pain in her back, which must have been her wing. Lily fell on top of it and broke it.

"Agh!" Lily wept. "I can't! I can't!"

Stomping came from behind her body, she didn't feel like turning around. It must've been a Manic coming to devour her. Lily cried harder. Any Manic that was around could hear her and they wouldn't waste any time running to her and eating her. Lily closed her eyes as she heard the stomping right behind her, ready for the sharp teeth to sink into her skin.

"Get her in the caravan! Quick!"

Someone picked up Lily and ran with her in their arms. She opened her eyes and could see a blurry silhouette. From what she could make of its build, it was a man. No, it couldn't be. All the humans are dead. Lily closed her eyes. The last thing she remembered hearing was bickering amongst the people who had taken her inside. She opened her mouth to say something but nothing would come out. She couldn't speak anymore.

Whoever had taken her, she hoped that they would decide she was a lost cause and let her die.

Keeping her alive would be pointless and would do her a disservice.

Without Aya, there was no reason to live anymore.

 **Teatime and wait...**


	13. Youmu II

**Youmu**

 **Sanzu River and Road of Liminality**

"Damn..." Youmu sat down at the bottom of the steps to Hakugyokurou and took off her shoes. Truly, the trek down was just as tiring as the trek down. She massaged her feet and rested. Turning around, she had only realized how far she had actually walked, as the clouds hid the top of the stairs and the Saigyou Ayakashi's top could not be seen.

Youmu stood up and put her shoes back on and walked down the Sanzu River shore to the dock that had two boats parked. One was reserved solely for Komachi and the other was for any crossers who wanted to paddle their way to the other side. The boats had a mind of their own, as they would drift off to any shore that had someone who wanted to cross. Well, maybe not a mind of it's own but Youmu liked to think that. It sounded better than saying magic made the boats cross to either shore.

After getting off the boat, Youmu threw the paddle back in and watched it make its way back to the dock. She couldn't help but feel lonely at this river that normally had ghosts warbling here and there. It was all so empty. Speaking of empty, Youmu began to wonder what had happened to Komachi. Had she been killed as well? What about Lady Enma? There's no way that a bunch of dead people could have killed the judge of Hell herself... Right?

...

Youmu walked down the beach until she saw a signpost with two signs pointing in opposite directions:

 **ROAD OF LIMINALITY**

 **SANZU (NORTH)**

There was no point in going north any longer as Eientei was south. Youmu walked toward the Road of Liminality. At first glance, she could see that the trees completely blocked out the sun, but as she walked further in, she started to bump into bushes. Soon, stalls came into view. The once colorful awnings were stained with mildew and dirt. This place hadn't been given any TLC for quite a while, Youmu thought. She walked slower and looked in each stall. Suddenly, Youmu felt a wet sting on her ankle.

"Kyaa!" She screamed and drew her Roukanken clumsily. "Wha-? Huh?!"

She felt more stings on her ankle and looked down. The skeleton fish were spitting water at her from inside the kiddie pool. Youmu cursed at them and continued walked, until something caught her eye. She looked at the stall behind the kiddie pool and saw a man with a hole in his head, the skin around the hole was burnt. Maggots had just started to eat into his eye sockets and his cheeks were sucked in. Youmu screamed, then realizing her mistake, covered her mouth with her hand. Shuffling from all directions started to come closer to her.

"Sh... Shit."

Manic of all shapes and sizes started to sprint toward her, while some limped. Youmu stood frozen in fear, before snapping back into reality. A Manic was a few yard away from her and closing in fast. Youmu sidestepped and tripped the Manic with her left foot, then sliced the head clean off while it was still falling in midair. The other two sprinting Manic were coming at her just behind the decapitated one. Youmu sliced horizontally, taking the heads of both of them off. The other five Manic were limping toward her and moaning loudly.

 **"Hooooouurmmmmghhh..."** The sound was enough to stop Youmu in her tracks.

The closest Manic lunged at Youmu and scratched her chest with both hands. The dull and harsh pain surged through Youmu's body and traveled down. She held her chest and looked at her hand and saw blood on it.

"No..." Youmu whispered to herself. She looked at the Manic and screamed, "NO!"

Youmu cut the Manic vertically and its body fell in two pieces cut symmetrically. The other four started to limp faster behind it. Youmu cut horizontally once more and took the heads of all four Manic clean off. The heads hit the ground with a sickening splat. Youmu fell to her knees and started to cry.

"It broke skin... I'm going to die... I'mgoingtodieI'mgoingtodieI'mgoingtodie." Youmu repeated over and over again. She looked down at her chest and saw no cut. The chest of her shirt was ripped, but the blood was on top of her breast bind. It had protected against the attack from the Manic. Youmu felt around for a cut before realizing there was none and the blood came from the claws of the Manic. Youmu began to laugh loudly. After a few seconds, Youmu was hit in the head. She looked behind her and saw Myon was bopping its body against Youmu's head to snap her out of it.

"Myon... You're here." Youmu hadn't given any thought to Myon the whole trip thus far. She had only realized that Myon had been with her the whole time.

 _"Gwoob... Gwoobgwoob."_ Myon warbled.

"Yeah, I'm sorry. You're right: we can't live without each other. I couldn't lose you even if I tried."

 _"GWOBGWOBGWOB..!"_ Myon whooshed loudly.

"Okay! Geez, it was a joke." Youmu put her hands up, expecting Myon to hit her head again.

 _"Gwooooob... Gwob... Gwobgwob."_

"Yeah, it was close. I had thought that it broke skin and that I was surely dead. Looks like I had this tape to thank." Youmu pointed at her breast bind. "Who would've thought that this would actually come in handy."

 _"Gwob."_

"What?! If you say that, that means you have small breasts, too!" Youmu covered her chest away from Myon. "Besides, they're not _that_ small."

 _"Gwob... Gwob."_

"Yeah, I know. Let's go." Youmu got up and patted the dust off of her skirt. She sheathed Roukanken then stopped. A sudden pain shot in her chest. "Gaaahhhh... I forgot... It always hurts later when you get hit in the chest!" Youmu grabbed her chest and sucked in air.

 _"Gwogwogwogwo..!_ " Myon giggled.

"It's not funny!" Youmu hugged Myon close to her, so as to get Myon to feel her pain.

"!" Myon tried to wiggle away from Youmu.

"Yeah, see? Not so funny now, is it?" Youmu let go of Myon. "Come on let's go. I'm dying to get out of this dark place."

Myon walked next to Youmu for a while, before pecking her face.

"What was that for?"

 _"Gwoooooon..."_

"Myon..." Youmu rubbed her cheek where Myon kissed her. "It's okay. I won't die. I promised Lady Yuyuko so I might as well promise you."

"Gwob!" Myon beamed happily.

Youmu smiled and lead the way, but deep down inside she felt guilty.

How..?

Just how could Youmu keep a promise like that after today. After coming so close to death? She walked faster to make sure Myon didn't go in front of her and saw her tearing up. Keeping a promise like that wasn't as easy as she thought.

 **Teatime and wait...**


	14. Lily White III

**Lily White**

 **Caravan**

"She's really hurt..."

Lily White faded in and out of consciousness.

"Didn't she... Blond hair..?"

"Oh my god! Look... Wing..!"

Lily White felt a sharp twinge of pain in her back that made her spasm out of sleep. Opening her eyes, she saw six wide-eyed humans looking at her. She opened her mouth as if to say something, but she coughed violently instead. Her throat was so dry that it prevented her from talking. Lily White looked at the humans and pointed at her throat. After a few seconds, the humans scrambled.

"Water. Get her some water." One girl said.

"Here. I found this bottle of some lemon stuff that we took from that other caravan." A man handed another man a strange glass bottle with a marble in the spout who handed it to Lily. Lily grabbed it and put it in her mouth. Nothing came out.

"I hear she's awake." A fairy walked in from outside. She saw Lily was having trouble with the glass. "Here. Give it here."

Lily gave the bottle to the fairy. She put her palm on the spout and jabbed it. It made a satisfying hiss, then the smell of lemon took over the whole caravan. She handed it back to Lily. Lily put the bottle in her mouth. After three seconds, the lemon drink was gone.

"Haahhh... Thanks..." Lily said, catching her breath.

"No problem, friend." The fairy said, smiling. "I'm Mayu. It's very nice to meet you."

"I'm-"

"No need. We know who you are. You saved many a human at the Human Village." Mayu said.

Lily White looked at her, then looked at the ground. "I didn't save them. Besides, they're all dead."

"Obviously not. Take a look around. They're all survivors. We only survived thanks to your nightly warnings about the Manic. That is what you call it right?"

"Yeah." Lily White only called them the first thing that came to mind. Manic fit better than any other word. "Manic. That's right."

"Lily. Do you remember why you were in the middle of the road?"

"Not really." Lily's memory was really fuzzy. She could only remember putting her face on the ground, readying herself to be devoured by Manic.

"Hm." Mayu rubbed her chin. "That's fine. That's fine. We'll take care of you."

It was only now that an alarm was sounded in Lily's mind. "Where are you taking me?"

"Just with us. We're going to end this whole 'living dead' situation we have going on." Mayu sounded confident.

"Eh? How? Do you even know what started this?" Lily asked.

"Do you remember that Moon Incident a long time ago?"

"Yes?"

"And do you remember who was behind it all?"

"Remilia Scarlet. Yes. Why?"

"She's the one behind all of this."

Lily was taken back. "Uh, she is? How do you know this?"

"We don't. It's just process of elimination."

"You mean, you're killing her based off of speculation?"

Mayu sighed and shook her head. "That's not the nicest way of putting it. Besides, what else has she done besides cause problems for Gensokyo? Trust me, even if we kill her and nothing happens, we'd be better off."

"That's not right. She's still a resident of Gensokyo. She deserves to live here like the rest of us, even under these circumstances." Lily White began to raise her voice.

"Lily. You disappoint me. I would have thought that you of all people would have been the most understanding to our cause. Think about where we're coming from. These are men, women, and children who have lost their homes and loved ones to these things. We're just trying our best to end this."

 _"You don't even know how this started..."_ Lily White whispered.

"Hm?"

"Nothing." Lily White muttered. "I'm sorry. I don't want to be a part of this. Thank you for your hospitality, but I want out."

Mayu dropped her head. "Come with me." She said, walking out of the caravan.

Lily followed her outside. The caravan was larger than she thought. There was enough room for about half of the Human Village to fit in and live easily. Horses pulled the caravan tirelessly. Lily counted eight.

"I wanted to take you out here so no one could hear us bicker." Mayu said solemnly. "We really want you to stay with us. You know more about times of when the Manic come out more than anyone. We could use you and you could use us."

Lily looked at Mayu for a few seconds, thinking about whether or not she should actually stay. "No. I'm sorry. I can't have it in my mind that I killed someone based off of speculation. I don't want to."

Mayu sighed. "We could have used you..." Mayu said quietly. She clapped her hands then two large men came out of the inside of the caravan. One grabbed Lily by the hair and the other grabbed her by the arms. The man holding her arms kicked the back of her knees, causing her to get on her knees.

"While it's true that these humans are forever grateful to you for saving them night after night, these humans are more loyal to me for actually taking them out of that overrun village. I came in one night with only two horses and a small caravan. Soon, I took in a few humans then more and more. On our travels we got the caravan you see here today. So you see, these humans will listen and do whatever I say." Mayu said in a condescending tone. "I would ask you one more time whether or not you've changed your mind to come with us, but honestly you piss me off. 'Killing based off of speculation'... Give me a break!"

Lily began to cry. She realized the danger she was in. "I'll come with you! I swear I won't do anything to go against you!"

The two men began to tie her legs with rope tightly. Mayu's smile got bigger by the second. "No. Sorry, I gave you a couple of chances. Why is it now that you change your mind?"

"Please! I'll do whatever you ask!"

"It's a shame, Lily. We really could have used you. We really could have. You two, bring her to the back of the caravan.

The muscular men grabbed her and lifted her up. Looking out the moving caravan, Lily began to get vertigo. When they reached the back plank of the caravan, the put her down on her legs, holding her up so she didn't fall. "Now then, tie the end of the rope on the plank. We're gonna throw her off. I've kinda wanted to see this once in my life."

"Huh?" Panic set in. "N-No! Please! Anything but that! Please let me change my mind! I swear I'll listen to you! I swear I'll be good!"

"I've always thought it was funny how people react when they know they're gonna die. You especially. It's kind of cute." Mayu chuckled. "Anyway, I at least have a sense of courtesy so any last words?"

Lily began to cry. Out of one dire situation and into another. She tried flapping her wings, but doing so only caused her to cry out even more. _"Aya... I couldn't get to Reimu. I didn't even last that long. I wasn't even that useful. I promised."_ Lily cried harder. _"I promised."_

"Uh, hello?" Mayu waved her hand in front of Lily's face. "Earth to Lily. Any last words?"

"..." Lily mumbled something under her breath.

"Huh? What did you say?" Mayu inched her face closed to Lily.

"GO. TO. HELL!" Lily headbutt Mayu in the face. She felt a crack on her forehead. Lily lunged on Mayu and bit her cheek.

"Get her off! Get her off!" Mayu screamed. The two men pulled on Lily, causing Mayu to scream out more. "Hyaaaaaa! GET HER OFF!"

The two men punched Lily's body all over before a punch in the breast winded Lily, causing her to fall on the floor. One man grabbed Lily by the shoulders, facing her.

"Do it." Mayu whispered with tears in her eyes. "DO IT!"

The man threw her away from him into the road. Lily hit the road and started dragging from the back of the caravan. Rock after rock hit the back of her head and dirt went in her mouth.

"Go faster!" She could barely hear Mayu scream over the sound of her body scraping against the road. Lily's vision began to water; dirt starting to get in her eyes. Each time the back of her head hit a rock, the hits felt softer and so did the back of her head. Lily tried crying out, but each rock she hit caused her to lose the wind in her lungs to the point that she couldn't breathe. After a few seconds, her vision started to become red. She realized she wasn't blinking anymore and blood was seeping its way into her eyes. Her vision was fully red and she couldn't see except for a few patches in her peripheral vision.

Lily didn't know if it was the way the rock were hitting her or the clopping of the horses feet, but she swore she heard a cackling coming from somewhere. Mayu probably.

One last rock hit the back of her head, causing her to black out and lose feeling in her body altogether. Her body went with the flow of the road and eventually, she knew no more.

The sprinting Manic began to follow the caravan, smelling the scent of blood. A few could not match the speed of the horses and gave up after a few minutes. One that could match the horses' speed jumped on top of Lily's corpse, causing the rope to break due to supporting too much weight. Other Manic followed behind and fought over the fresh, dirty corpse.

Mayu watched as they fought and soon went out of sight. She held her bloodied cheek and chuckled one last time before going back inside of the caravan with the two muscular men following suit.

 **Teatime and wait...**


	15. JiroReisen III

**Reisen & Jiro**

 **Outside the Forest**

"Didn't you say you only needed one specimen? What's another gonna do?" Reisen said dejectedly.

"Look, I know you're not too thrilled about this. I just need you to catch a female this time." Eirin said.

"A female?" Reisen whined. "What's the difference? They all have jelly for blood and sharp teeth."

"Well, besides checking to see the different blood types and what the difference is between them. I also want to see if there's a difference in strength or speed."

"Uh, I think it's a given that the females will be slower because of the length of their legs in comparison to males." Reisen said. "I mean, it makes sense. Right? Strength, too. I don't think a girl Manic will be stronger than a guy."

"It would seem that way, yes. However, you told me that there were runners instead of those limping ones. I want to see how fast they can run. As for the strength, you never know. This could give all the females superhuman strength along with the males. They could be equals in strength now. I just wanna check to be sure."

"How will you do that without jeopardizing your safety?"

"You forget that I can fly." Eirin said smugly. "I'll fly away from it and see how fast they run."

"Okay, okay. No. That's stupid. What information could you possibly get just from how fast they run? We're focusing on the blood work of these things and what germs they have. Running won't solve a thing."

"Yes, I suppose you're correct. This is more of a personal interest, however. I'll do it only after I check their blood types. I promise I'll put the important stuff first."

Reisen scoffed. She looked at Eirin with a concerned look on her face. "Eirin, I'd rather you not do this. I'll get you the girl and all. Just don't test stupid things like how fast it runs or how long it takes to eat or anything dumb like that. Okay?"

Eirin smiled. She hugged Reisen tight. "I appreciate your concern for my wellbeing. If it really bothers you that much, I shall set my personal interests aside and I won't do it. I'll focus only on the blood work. After I compare the different blood types, I'll call you. This is provided that the two have different blood types. If they don't, I'll need you to get me another one. Is that all right with you?"

 _"Yeah, only why does it have to be me that risks their neck for this?"_ She wanted to say, but she thought against it. Reisen nodded. "Sure, I'll get another one if need be."

"Thank you, Reisen. That will be all then." Eirin said. Reisen bowed deeply and slid the door open then closed it behind her.  
She walked down the hallway with all sorts of thoughts running through her head. She had never seen Eirin so obsessed with anything as much as she was obsessed about this illness. It almost seemed unhealthy to Reisen the amount of time Eirin had spent on this. Whenever Reisen would leave her room to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night, she would still see Eirin's light on in her room. It was amazing to Reisen how much time she was spending on just two specimens: blood and numerous teeth that Eirin made her pull out after she realized she needed more than one. She stopped in front of Jiro's room and knocked.

"...Uh-huh?" Jiro said from behind the door, obviously caught in mid-sleep.

"Oh! I'm sorry! I can come back later." Reisen said.

"Nah, it's okay. I wasn't really that asleep yet." Jiro walked to the door and opened it. His hair was all over the place. "What's up?"

"I just need someone to talk to. I'm bored and stressed. A double whammy, if you will." Reisen joked.

Jiro laughed. "Yeah, that's true. Come in and take a seat."

"Thank you." Reisen bowed then entered. Jiro had the best room in all of Eientei. The walls were lined with classic Japanese art. Hikeboshi and Orihime on one wall, which was appropriate for a place like Eientei, seeing as though Tanabata was the second most popular festival held there before the Moon Festival what with all the bamboo that was there. The story of the Old Man and the Rabbit on the moon was painted across the other wall. Reisen was jealous that her room wasn't as beautiful, but it was a guest suite so 'only the best for the guests', as Kaguya used to say. She sat down by the kotatsu and blanketed her legs with the cover. Jiro was over by the corner preparing tea.

"Okay, I'll wait for it to warm up." He sat down in front of Reisen. "So, what's new?"

"Oh, you know. I'm just stressed out with having to take care of all this Manic crap for Eirin and all. I'm constantly in danger so it's kind of annoying."

"Hm. Have you tried telling her?" Jiro asked.

"I can't! I owe Eirin so much, and besides I want to get rid of this disease just as much as she does. She's the only one in Gensokyo qualified to combat this. I heard of some girl in Makai who could also work with medicine, but she's fallen off the radar."

"I see." Jiro said. "My opinion? I think you should put up with this a little more. I'm sure it's a lot of work, but in the end you'll be saving lots of lives."

"Yeah, I know. I guess that much is obvious." Reisen said as the kettle started to whistle.

"Be right back." Jiro walked to the corner of the room and lifted the kettle. "What kind of tea do you want? I have oolong, green, and hibiscus with mint."

"I'll take hibiscus with mint." Reisen said. "Thank you."

Jiro walked over to the kotatsu and set down the cup with her tea bag already in it. He poured the water carefully into her cup and the water began to change into a brown-pink color. He then set down his cup and poured the hot water in it. It changed into a light brown water. Reisen waited for her tea to cool off, but Jiro immediately started to drink the scalding hot water.

"My, you must drink water a lot." Reisen said, obviously impressed that his mouth could withstand the heat. "I usually have to wait until my water is tepid and the least."

"Oh. Yeah. My dad was a really strict guy so whenever we had guests over, he'd force me to drink hot tea with his guests. I eventually grew used to the heat. However, I don't think my tastebuds were saved. It's kind of hard to taste some foods. Mostly sweet foods."

"That's... sad." Reisen said dejectedly. She then opened her mouth to say something, but hesitated.

"What?"

"Nothing."

"No. Come on, tell me."

"Um..." Reisen hesitated again but opened her mouth and said, "Where is your family now?"

"Ah." Jiro smiled. "It's okay. You didn't need to hesitate. My parent were killed by the Manic in their store in the Human Village."

"I'm-" Reisen was surprised even though she knew what the answer was going to be. "I'm so sorry."

"No, no. I resented my bastard father anyway. My mom died as well but we never talked to each other.. My sisters were really the only ones I felt sorry for. But it's okay now. I'll live for them."

Reisen giggled then laughed. "Very admirable."

"Yeah, I guess." Jiro chuckled.

Reisen hovered her hand over her teacup to test how hot it was. She picked up and sipped the tea and it was the perfect temperature. The cups had a good way of cooling down the tea in a short amount of time. By the time Reisen was halfway done with her cup of tea, Jiro had finished his tea.

"I'm afraid. I won't be able to finish this tea. I really have to go do this now."

"Oh. Sure. Don't let me hold you. I shouldn't have asked." Jiro said.

"Please finish it for me. It's a good waste of tea." Reisen said. She went for the sliding door. "Goodbye, Jiro. I'll talk to you tomorrow."

"Hey, please stay safe." Jiro said. "Come back in one piece."

"I will." Reisen smiled sweetly to him. "Now then, I'll be off."

"Okay, goodbye." Jiro said as Reisen bowed then closed the door behind her.

"..."

"...She said to finish it but..." Jiro said to himself. He looked at the cup of still-warm hibiscus tea intriguingly. "Well, it's true it would be a waste."

He picked up the cup. It seemed to be heavier than he thought. She barely even touched the tea. Jiro put his hand over the cup to see how hot it was. Content with the heat, he chugged the tea in one go. He wiped his mouth with his sleeve and began to put the teacups away when something caught his eye. He saw a small notepad on the floor. Upon closer examination, he saw that there was a small rabbit on the cover with four hiragana characters on it.

REISEN

Jiro got up quickly and opened his door. He looked down the hall and saw Reisen just turning the corner. He ran after her and called out her name.

"Hey! Wait!"

Reisen turned around, startled, "What? What is it?"

"You dropped..." Jiro muttured, catching his breath. "This."

Reisen saw the notepad in his hand and quickly snatched it. "Wha-! Where did you find this?!"

Jiro winced. "I- Um. It was on the floor where you were sitting."

"You read it." Reisen looked at him with murder in her red eyes. "Didn't you?"

"What? No! Of course I didn't!" Jiro recoiled. "I swear!"

Reisen stared at him for what seemed like years to Jiro. She turned around and kept walking down the hallway and opened up a door that led outside. She let the door slam, which made Eirin peek out of her room. She turned her head and looked at Jiro.

"Is everything all right?" She asked.

"Yeah, everything is fine." Jiro said.

"Ooookay..." Eirin said, withdrawing back into her room and closing the door. Jiro decided to do the same and walked back to his room to finish putting away the teacups and kettle. After putting everything away and evening out the yukata blanket, Jiro got into his futon to take the nap he was going to take before Reisen came in. Staring up at the ceiling, Jiro started to think.

 _"What was in that notepad?"_

He closed his eyes and decided to forget about it. He had always heard that everything a girl owns has a secret in it from some of the boys in his class. Putting the earlier scenario in the back of his mind, Jiro drifted off to sleep for the night.

 **Teatime and wait...**


	16. Reimu I

**Reimu**

 **Hakurei Shrine**

 _"Shit..."_ Reimu sat underneath a desk, getting tired of the loud moans of Manic outside her window. It was getting old. She ran out of food the day before and had been debating the whole day whether or not to go out and scout for some food. Getting out of the shrine would be easier said than done. While it was true that the monsters outside thinned out during the day, the shadows of trees over the shrine acted as a hub for them to stay unaffected by the sun. It was night now and a horde of the things blocked her door and windows. She crawled over to the kotatsu.

"Kasen."

"Hrnnn..?"

"C'mon get up. We need to find food before it turns too dark."

Kasen opened her eyes then rubbed them. "Shiiiit..." She yawned a yawn that made it sound like she went years without sleeping.

"Come on. Up up up." Reimu lightly tapped Kasen's face repeatedly.

"Alright alright. Stop. I'm getting up." Kasen pulled herself out of the kotatsu and walked over to the genkan. "What made you wanna get food today?"

"We're all out."

"What?!" Kasen stopped putting on her slipper and ran to the cooler. Sure enough, there was no more food. "Oh, _crap!"_

Reimu scoffed, "Why are you surprised? Haven't you been checking our stock?"

"Not really. I've just been taking food as I see fit."

"That's... not something one would admit to so quickly but it's whatever." Reimu put on her shoes and kicked the tips of the shoes on the floor. "Ready?"

Kasen went back to the genkan and put her last slipper on. "Ready. How are we going to do this?"

"Recklessly, duh. Headfirst into the fray."

"Reimu, don't be stupid at a time like this."

"No, I'm serious. Can you think of any other way to do this? We can't sneak around these things. There's so many of them."

Kasen sighed. "Okay, I suppose you're right. When you open the door, I'll try and clear the way."

"Right." Reimu put her hand in the divot on the sliding door. "Ready?"

Kasen nodded and Reimu slid the door open. The Manic whipped their heads toward the girls' direction and began to scream. Kasen's bandages created a large spiked shield in front of her. She ran forward and pushed Manic out of the way. Reimu followed close behind, throwing ofuda as the heads of Manic that approached from the side, quickly subduing them. Blood gushed past the girls from the shield running over the Manic.

"Come on. The rest of the way is clear." Kasen withdrew the bloody bandages back to a hand. "Ew..."

The two ran down the shrine stairs with the Manic clumsily falling down. Sickening cracks rang out as Manics were slamming down the stairs past them.

"Man, these things aren't too smart." Reimu looked back.

"No, they're not." Kasen said, not paying attention to the bloodshed going on behind her. Eventually, they reached the bottom of the stairs.

"I think it's safe to fly here." Reimu said.

"Speak for yourself, I still have some trouble flying. I don't know how you do it."

"Right. You fly at low altitudes because of that hawk of yours."

"Ah, you mean Kume or Kanda?"

"How the hell should I know? They're birds that look exactly the same. I can't tell them apart."

"How rude. They're more than birds. They're family to me."

"Riiight." Reimu began to float. "Shall we? I'll fly low."

"Okay. Where to?" Kasen jumped up and floated with Reimu.

"Human Village. That has to be the safest place right now."

"Right. Let's go." Kasen flew west toward the Human Village. Reimu followed.

"How do you think they closed it off?! The Village, I mean!" Kasen yelled out.

"I don't know! Knowing them, they probably just holed up in the village court or some evacuation place like that!

Kasen was quiet before yelling out, "We can only hope that they're safe and that no one is hurt!"

"Did you see what happened back at the shrine?! Of course there will be people hurt!"

"...And you're sure there's nothing I can do about that negative mind of yours?!" Kasen yelled out, grinning.

After a brief flight west, the two landed down at the eastern entrance of the village. The large sign in front of them said Human Village in large kanji with bodies hanging from their necks underneath. The smell of decay wafted to their noses and Kasen held her mouth, trying her all not to vomit.

"Hm." Reimu looked at the houses. Loud moans were coming from the village square. "They're over there. Tons of them. We should turn back now."

"Y-yeah... Hold on, gimme a chance to... You know..." Kasen breathed in and out, heavily.

"Oh, come on. It's not that bad. It smells the same back at the shrine." Reimu said.

"That's not... Look." Kasen pointed at the hanging bodies.

"Oh, right. I'm guessing you're not used to the sight of it. Neither am I, to be honest, but I'm used to death so this isn't really different."

"That's good and all, but I don't think I'll be used to it anytime soon."

"Meh, some people have different reactions to this kind of stuff. Just remember that we're surrounded by dead people all day."

"Yes, yes... Now please be quiet. Talking makes me feel worse." Kasen closed her teary eyes. Reimu stared at her in pity.

"I'm sorry. That wasn't really considerate of me. Come on, there's nothing for us he-"

 _Tap tap tap tap!_

Reimu's head perked up at the sound of the tapping."What's that?"

 _Tap tap tap tap!_

Kasen looked around the houses nearby. "Where's that coming from? A house?"

The sound of a window scraping open came from behind them. _"Over here!"_

In the window was the librarian, Kosuzu. Her hair was cut short and her plaid shirt tattered. " _Over here!_ "

Reimu and Kasen looked at each other briefly before running toward the window. Reimu jumped over the windowsill and into the house with Kasen following behind her.

Kosuzu scraped the window shut with difficulty and turned back toward the girls. "Oh, thank goodness. Some people are alive. What makes this better is that it's people I know."

"You look-" Reimu hesitated. "Forgive me for saying this but you look like hell. What happened to your hair?"

"I cut it because I almost died to one of those things that grabbed my hair. Figured it did me better short than long, you know?" Kosuzu ran hurriedly toward a small cooler in the corner of the room. She took out two bottles from it. "You all must be parched. Here."

Kasen and Reimu both took the bottles in hand and bowed. "Thank you. I appreciate your hospitality." Kasen said.

"As do I. Thank you." Reimu said.

"Oh come now. No need for the formalities. It's just nice to see friends that are alive. You two must be hungry. Come." Kosuzu tottered toward a narrow hallway and into a room. Reimu and Kasen followed close behind. Inside the room was an extremely dirty kitchen that smelled of mildew and urine. Kosuzu reached into a cupboard and pulled out three plastic bags containing sandwiches inside.

"Um, I hope you two like soba sandwiches. They're kind of my favorite so I didn't think twice before taking them." She held the plastic bags out. "Here. Please take then."

Kasen and Reimu took the bags in hand and bowed deeper than before. Kosuzu smiled as they ate their sandwiches. Kasen grimaced at the unfamiliar taste of the soba noodles in sandwich form. Reimu ate the sandwich without hesitation, savoring each bite.

"Tell me," Kosuzu took on a more somber expression. "How bad is it? Is it happening all over Gensokyo?"

Reimu stopped chewing. She swallowed and waited a second before giving an answer. "It's bad. As far as I can tell it's happening all over Gensokyo. I'm gonna keep up the border as I always have for obvious reason. If this crawls out into the outside world... Gods help them."

"I've been staying with her for the past few weeks. The mountains have been pretty much quiet and I can take a ton of these things easily just by myself but staying with Reimu seemed safer... until I realized how overrun her shrine was in the coming days."

"You say it as if it were my fault." Reimu said, annoyed.

"No. It's no ones fault. I'd just rather not go back."

"Well, we have to. That's the only place we got."

"Really? Well let me ask you this... Did you close the door?" Kasen asked seriously.

"Huh?"

"Did you. Close. The. Door?"

Reimu's face went pale. "Oh... Oh no... We forgot to..."

"We forgot to? You were the one by the door. I was busy making a shield for us." Kasen said.

"C-come now, girls. It's no ones fault. We all forget things once in a while. We can live here! It's safe with those things occupying the village square. We're out of the way! They never come here at night and from I see, they never come out in the morning unless they're hiding in the shade."

"We appreciate your hospitality. Really we do. But we can't afford to live so close to them. I'd have peace of mind knowing I'm not so close to them." Reimu said. "My shrine was the only place I had that peace of mind."

"Really? With them right outside your doorstep? I think we should find someplace else to live." Kasen said.

"Then where do you suggest we go to?" Kosuzu asked.

"Well... That's the question of the century." Reimu said. "Maybe we can go some place where these things couldn't roam. Like Hell or someplace like that."

"Do you think Hell is really free of these things?" Kasen asked.

"We can't know until we go. The thing is that the geyser to Hell is backed up with water. We'll have to wait for it to go down to we can go down without drowning."

"Do you think we'll even make it until the geyser goes down? Hell is out of the question."

"Then what about Heaven? There's no way those things can fly all the way up there."

"Do you really think a selfish girl like Tenshi would let anyone up in heaven? We could try but I'm almost ninety-nine percent sure she wouldn't let us up there."

"Agh! Alright, fine! What do you suggest we do then?"

Kasen folded her plastic bag neatly then tossed it into the trash bin. "I suggest we stay down in Gensokyo and find somewhere safe. It just so happens I have a plan."

"Oh?" Kosuzu finished the last bit of her sandwich.

"Eientei. Think about it. It has a natural barrier against these things. Those things are too dumb to traverse around a bamboo maze so we'd be safe there."

"Hmph. It sounds like a good idea except for one thing you brought up: would Eirin and the rest of the girls accept us?"

"I don't see why not. They don't hate us as much as Tenshi hates us. Aren't you in good standing with Kaguya and Eirin?"

"Yeah, but obviously times have changed. What if everyone else had the same idea? What if everyone else went to Eientei? We'd be just another bunch of people trying to find shelter."

"We can't know unless we try. I think Eirin and the rest would understand our situation. Don't you?" Kasen said.

"Um, Miss Reimu, forgive me for saying this but I have to agree with Miss Kasen on this. We might as well try if it means safety in a place where the Manic can't get to us."

"Manic..." Reimu said. "That's what you call them? What happened to your calling them 'those things'?"

"Sorry. I call them that along with "those things" and stuff. Lily White used to come around and call a curfew to warn us to get inside. She kept doing it even after the Human Village was lost. She hasn't come around for the last week or so. I can only assume the worst happened to her."

"Pfft." Reimu scoffed.

"It's okay. I'm sure you've gotten a feel for the time that they usually come out, right?" Kasen asked.

"Yes, that's right." Kosuzu said.

"Great. First thing in the morning after they leave we should head toward Eientei." Kasen said with a certain edge to her voice as if she would take no argument against it. "Reimu, are you still against this?

Reimu scoffed again. "Putting me on the spot... No, I'm not. I'd be dumb not to take any chance on the possibility that we can find someplace safer. There's gotta better places better than this. No offense."

"None taken." Kosuzu waved it off.

"I'm glad we've reached an agreement." Kasen smiled genuinely for the first time in a long time. "I just woke up not too long ago so I'll keep lookout for the rest of the night. If you two want to sleep, go ahead."

"I haven't slept well since the start of this but this Eientei plan has given me peace of mind. If Eientei is still fine and not taken, we could hole up there until this is all over if the ladies of the mansion are willing." Said Kosuzu. "Anyway, with that I think it's time for bed if you're offering to keep lookout."

Reimu rubbed her eyes. "Right, I think I'll sleep too. Where is the room where we sleep?"

"Follow me please." Kosuzu walked into the hallway. Reimu followed her. Kosuzu slid open the door to a room that had futons neatly folded in a pile. The room didn't smell of mildew and urine but instead of a normal house. Kosuzu must have kept this room really clean and neglected the rest of the house, Reimu thought.

"There's only one window so I'm sorry if you can't see. Not much light gets in here" Kosuzu said, maneuvering her way through the room without a problem. "Here. Follow my voice."

Reimu walked over toward her and the pile of futons. She took one and laid it neatly down on the floor. "Well, I'll see you in the morning."

"Yeah! Good night, Miss Reimu" Kosuzu said with a big smile as she pushed herself into her futon. The room was silent and Reimu found that she couldn't sleep. After staying up for 10 minutes or so, she realized Kosuzu wasn't snoring.

" _Hey_." Reimu whispered.

" _Yeah?_ " Kosuzu replied.

" _I can't sleep._ "

Kosuzu snorted a chuckle. " _Yeah, me neither._ "

" _Why are we whispering?"_

" _I dunno. You started it._ " Kosuzu said.

" _Yeah, I guess._ " Reimu sat up. "I'll stop then."

"Are you still hungry?"

"No! No, no. Please keep the food. We need to keep what we have and avoid snacking on it." Reimu blurted out.

"I see. Are you thirsty? We have plenty of drinks left in the cooler"

"No, it's not that I can't sleep because of that. I guess I'm anxious."

"About tomorrow?"

"Yeah, that and other things."

"Oh? Like what?"

"Like seeing people that are living. It was weird enough living a month with these things outside my doorstep only to have Kasen show up unscathed. I thought everyone had died and that this was some kind of irreversible incident that even I couldn't hope to resolve. It was then that I realized that not everyone can be dead. If Eientei isn't taken over by those things and Eirin is there, we may have a chance to figure out what this thing is and resolve this incident."

"Is Eirin the only one who can resolve this?" Kosuzu asked.

"Well, I knew a scientist a long time ago but I haven't heard from her in a while. Besides, Eirin is the one to go to if people are sick." Reimu laid back down. "That's why I can't sleep."

"Ohhh... Don't worry. We have every reason to believe Eientei is untouched. Kasen said that the whole thing is a maze and that these things are too dumb to even maneuver around without bumping into anything."

"I suppose you're right. I have nothing to worry about." Reimu stared at Kosuzu for a long time.

"Huh? What's wrong? Is there something on my face?" She started to feel around her face.

"Thanks. For talking to me and taking us in. You didn't have to but you did." Reimu

"Of course I had to. I couldn't live with myself if I saw you two pass by and not say anything. That would be just cold."

"Heh." Reimu chuckled. "Let's try and sleep. We have a long day tomorrow."

"Okay. I'll see you in the morning, Miss Reimu." Kosuzu plopped her head down into her pillow.

"Hey, Kosuzu." Reimu said.

"Yes?"

"It's Reimu. Just call me Reimu from now on. No formalities."

Kosuzu looked uncomfortable. Reimu thought that she must have been the one who uses formalities with everyone. It was understandable to Reimu since Kosuzu was a librarian at all. Suddenly, she smiled "Okay. Goodnight, Reimu."

"Goodnight, Kosuzu." Reimu turned on her side on the futon and closed her eyes. After a few minutes, she was asleep.

 **Teatime and wait...**


	17. Marisa III

**Marisa**

 **The Forest of Magic**

"My house..." Alice looked on in horror as she saw the Manic surrounding the inside and outside of her house. "What... How? How did they get in?"

"I'm sorry." Marisa consoled Alice. "We need to get out of here before they notice us. If those things can break into your house then they can easily rip us apart. Come on." Marisa beckoned Alice to follow. Alice listened and ran toward Marisa and Star.

"I guess... I guess I should've seen this coming, huh?" Alice started to tear up. "Now where are we gonna go?"

"That's-" Marisa had trouble answering. "I don't know. I don't know where we can go."

"The Human Village. We can go there, right? The humans are smart; they can defend themselves against these things."

"The village?" Marisa rubbed her chin. "Well, it does make sense but if I were one of these things, I'd make sure to hit the village first."

"Come on, Marisa. Do you think these things art smart enough to actually think like that? I doubt it." Star said.

"Weeeell, I guess." Marisa shrugged. "Meh, whatever gets us to safety. Let's try it."

Star smiled. "Okay!"

"Let's go, then." Marisa prepped her broom for takeoff.

"Huh? I'm afraid of heights." Alice said. "You know that!"

"Walking there would be suicide so tuck your tail between your legs and make do." Marisa said with an edge to her voice. "Just hold on tight if you're that scared. If you fall, which is very unlikely, I'll catch you, ze."

"Hmph. Fine." Alice got on the broom, sitting behind Marisa. Star got on behind Alice.

"Okay, hold on. I'm gonna go up gently but once we get going, it's gonna be a little bumpy at first." Marisa pulled the head of the boom upward slightly, making the three ascend slowly. A manic limped underneath the broom and moaned softly, reaching toward the girls. "Here we go."

The broom shot forward and they were off toward the village.

"I know you're afraid of heights, but you really get to see a lot of Gensokyo from up here!" Marisa shouted through the loud wind.

"Yeah! It's very cool! I can see the Nameless Hill. Looks like the Lily-of-the-Valleys are still in bloom!" Star said.

"Uuuuuh..." Alice moaned. She held Marisa's torso tight.

"Hey." Marisa groaned. "Loosen up, will ya?"

The trio flew for a half an hour before the Human Village emerged into sight. A thick cloud of smoke was burning from the center.

"Stop!" Star shouted.

The broom halted to a stop and Marisa turned around. "What? What's wrong?"

"Down there. Look." Star pointed toward the ground. A body was sprawled out on the ground, the midsection of the body torn and mangled. "That's..."

Marisa lowered the broom down toward the earth and Star jumped off. Alice jumped off and followed.

Star walked toward the body and recoiled. "No..."

"What is i-" Marisa looked at the body and saw the distinctive pattern on the skirt. White with red zigzags. The face was bloodied and covered the majority of the face. Her left eye was half open and right eye closed. The midsection was too much for Alice to handle.

"Oh my gosh." Alice started to hyperventilate. "Oh my gosh!"

"Lily..." Star began to cry."

"Someone did this to her and recently." Marisa said. "Look." She pointed at Lily's head. More blood was seeping from the back of her head than her torso.

"What? I don't get it."

"Her head is bleeding." Marisa raised Lily's head.

"Don't! Don't touch her!" Star winced.

"Star, look. The back of her head is cracked open. I don't think a Manic could've done this."

"She could've-" Star began to cry. "She could've-!"

Marisa looked over the body more and saw a rope on her legs. The rope was snapped but still tied around her knees. "No. She was dragged by something. Look at how rocky this road is. I wouldn't be surprised if she was dragged and she hit her head a bunch of times on these rocks."

"Who could have done this? I would like the think that youkai aren't this sadistic." Alice said.

"I think they knew very well what they were doing. The question 'why' is out of the question. There was no reason for this. Lily didn't deserve this and I didn't know anyone who hated her."

Star was bawling a few feet away. Alice ran up to her. "I'm so sorry, Star. I know she was your friend."

Marisa couldn't help but think about the people who could have done something such as this. She was the farthest thing from the detectives she read about, she knew this, but knew that the kind of person who drags someone by a rope on a rocky road is the same kind of person who would rip the wings off a fly and watch it writhe in pain. The person who did this was a sadist, there was no two ways about it.

"Whoever did this is probably in the area. We have to watch ourselves. Let's go." Marisa got on the broom, signaling the girls to get on. Alice got on, holding Stars hand and helping her get on as well. Marisa pulled the broom upward and flew toward the village. After a few minutes, the girls were over the outskirts of the village. The village had been reduced to shambles. Apartments on fire and food and goods stands were strewn throughout the roads. There was a carriage down in the village.

 _Fwit! Fwit!_

"Huh?!" Marisa looked around. Objects were whizzing past the broom. Looking down, she saw people killing manic and shooting arrows upward toward the girls. "Shit! Oh, shit!"

"Go! Go!" Alice shouted. The broom went speeding through the air. Star didn't have a good grip stumbled off the broom but held on with both hands. "Wait! Marisa! Stop!"

Marisa stopped the broom and saw Star hanging on.

 _Fwit! Fwish!_

"No! Keep going! If I fall I can fly down and-"

 _Squelch! Squelch!_

Alice and Marisa stared wide-eyed at Star. The first arrow hit her stomach. The second hit her throat. She reflexively let go of the broom and fell. A loud slam came from the ground as Star crashed down onto the earth. For Marisa, time slowed down and she couldn't hear anything. All she saw was Star's lifeless body sprawled out on the ground with blood pooling around her body.

"Marisa!" Alice screamed. "Marisa! GO!"

Marisa suddenly realized the danger she was in and sped away from the village with arrows whizzing past.

 _Squelch!_

"Agh!" Alice screamed out in pain. An arrow hit her shoulder.

"Alice?!"

"I'm fine! Just keep going!" Alice grabbed the arrow and pulled it out. "Hnnngh! Ah!"

Marisa sped through the air with tears blurring her vision. The arrows eventually stopped whizzing by. They were outside of the archers' ranges. Marisa slowed down the broom.

"Th-they-" Marisa stuttered. "Star. They got Star. Sh-she didn't..."

"Marisa." Alice began to cry. "Don't think about that! Don't, please!" She hugged Marisa tightly. "Ow!'

"Alice... Your arm." Marisa mewled. "It's so bloody."

"I'm fine. I'll be fine. We need to find some place to rest. What's the closest place?" Alice asked.

"U-uh.. Um... Eientei is the closest place." Marisa managed to stutter the words out."Those were... humans, weren't they?"

"I couldn't tell." Alice whimpered. "Why were they shooting at us is the better question. There was no reason. They killed Star!"

"I-I..." The broom started to wobble slightly.

"I'm sorry. Let's not talk right now." Alice hugged Marisa tighter.

The death of a friend took Marisa by surprise. One second Star was there and the next she was gone. Marisa began to blame herself for speeding too suddenly. If she hadn't, Star wouldn't have fallen off is what she told herself. The group of archers that had killed her must have been the same group that killed Lily. If they were cruel enough to drag Lily through a rocky road, shooting arrows at a flying group of targets would have been nothing. While it was typically against Marisa's code of honor to kill anything, Marisa made a silent vow to kill Star's murderers even though finding out who exactly shot the arrow was a long shot. Instead of finding out who the actual archer was, Marisa swore to herself that the whole group would pay. She would see the carriage again, someday.

And when she did, there wouldn't be much of a group left.

 **Teatime and..?**


	18. Youmu III

**Youmu**

 **Near the Human Village (East)**

"No, I don't see much yet. I'll tell you if I do." Youmu said to Myon. She had been scouting out the village for the better part of a half an hour. All she had seen was a few Manic limping around but not nearly as much as she would have imagined if the Human Village had really been taken. "This is weird. I don't see a lot of them, but..."

She looked at the dirt road and saw wheel tracks on the mud. It was fresh but she didn't see any carriage from where she was. Youmu thought against going farther into the village.

...

...

"Myon, I have an idea. Come with me." Youmu looked around and saw a broken window. "I'm gonna have you look around the village for me. As long as you fly high enough, I don't think they can touch you. Even then, I don't think you'll turn into one of them. Can't be too safe, right?"

" _Gwob."_

"Alright, come in. We're gonna need a safe place to do this." Youmu pushed the window open and crawled inside. When she landed on the floor, she was punched in the stomach then the face. Winded and dazed, Youmu saw another punch coming then clumsily cut the hand that was going to punch her. The hand fell and flattened. Bandages. "Stop! Wait!"

"Who are you?!" A voice boomed. She was still hidden by the darkness of the room.

"Please! I can explain! I was merely looking for shelter!" Youmu said.

Footsteps came rushing into the room. "Woah, what's going o-" Two girls walked toward the moonlight. It was Kosuzu and Reimu. "Youmu..."

"Youmu? You know her?" The bandaged girl said, still on guard.

"Yeah, she's an acquaintance. Stand down." Reimu said. She walked up to Youmu. "Your hair has grown."

"What are you doing here? Why aren't you at the shrine? Don't tell me..." Youmu had a grim look on her face.

"I'm afraid so. It was taken because of my stupidity. I left the door open." Reimu admitted. "Besides, we're not going back. We have a plan."

"Oh?" Youmu wondered. A plan to add onto her plan. "Do tell."

"We're gonna go to Eientei. If anyone can even come close to curing this thing, it'd be Eirin. Don't you think?" Reimu said.

Youmu's shoulders drooped. They had the same plan as hers. "Oh. Yeah"

"How is Yuyuko? Did she stay in Hakugyokurou?" Reimu asked.

"Yes. I didn't want her in any danger so I decided to go to Eientei to enlist the help of Eirin." Youmu said.

"Same plan as ours, huh?" Reimu looked behind her for a second. Kasen was still on edge. "Geez, Kasen. Stand down. She's a friend, not a foe."

Kasen eased herself and withdrew her bandage from the floor. "Was she going to try to attack with her cut-off bandaged hand, just in case?" Youmu thought.

"I'm sorry." Kasen said, bowing deeply. Kasen's apology seemed genuine and she really was sorry to Youmu.

"Ah! It's fine, it's fine!" Youmu waved off the issue. "Don't worry about it."

"We were going to head out tomorrow. Wanna come with us?" Reimu asked. "We could use everyone we have."

"Sure. It's nice to see a familiar face with the same intentions as I." Youmu said. Then something popped into Youmu's head. "Hey, I have a question."

"Shoot." Reimu said.

"Those wheel marks outside. Those weren't yours by any chance, were they? The mud from the tracks seems fresh."

"Wheel marks? No, they aren't ours. I didn't see any wheel marks."

"Oh, it looks like whatever has been coming through the village comes through a lot because it wasn't just one pair of tracks. I was just wondering if it was you is all." Youmu said.

"Hm. It seems like we're not the only survivors after all. It'd be crazy to think that way, anyway." Reimu said. "We can go and check the tracks out tomorrow. For now, we should sleep. I was sound asleep before you came in." Reimu said and glared at Kasen.

"S-sorry." Kasen rubbed her head, obviously embarrassed.

"Yeah, you're right. I was going to find a place to lie low for the night before I found you all. I've been walking all day and I'm really tired." Youmu said. "Now then, shall we make our way to the rooms?"

"Yes! Please follow me. I have futons in the other room." Kosuzu walked down the hall with Youmu and Reimu following close behind. Kasen stayed behind to keep watch.

...

Kosuzu walked over to a dresser and pulled out a futon she had put away earlier. "Here, Miss Youmu."

"Ah. Thank you very much for your hospitality."

"No need to be so formal. It's nice to have another friend with us."

Youmu bowed once more then set the futon on the floor next to the other two. She then removed her bloody, ripped shirt and felt around to see if the monster she had encountered earlier in the day had bruised her. Her left breast hurt as she prodded it. Removing part of her breast bind revealed a large blueish bruise.

"What happened?!" Reimu saw the discoloration of Youmu's breast in the moonlight. "Were you bit?! Scratched?! I saw the blood but assumed-"

"No, nothing like that. I was attacked by a group of them and one hit me with a bloody hand and ripped my shirt. It left a bruise and it hurts, a lot. I'll survive though." Youmu re-wrapped her bind on her chest and folded her shirt, took off her swords and put them next to her futon. "Now then, shall-"

"Everyone!" Kasen ran in the room.

"Miss Kasen? Is everything al-"

"People! People outside!" Kasen said in a whisper-yell. "I heard two human men outside!"

"Human men? What were they doing?" Youmu asked.

"I don't know. They were passing by the house when I noticed them."

"Are you sure they weren't Manic?" Reimu asked. "Maybe they-"

"No! I heard them talking and saw them walking normally. They were alive!" Kasen said excitedly. "Let's go to them!"

Youmu fastened her swords on her back. Myon stuck close to her. "I don't think we should do that. I don't know about you but someone "walking" at night for no reason sounds fishy to me. Let's find them and watch them for a bit."

"I agree with Youmu. Let's check them out first. See if they have a group." Reimu said.

"Fair enough." Kasen said, excited. Kasen waited by the door. "Whenever we're ready."

"I'm ready. I just need to get my shoes on." Youmu said after putting her bloody shirt back on. She walked over to the genkan and slid into her loafers then nodding toward Kasen that she was ready.

"Okay then. Let's go." Kasen walked over to the window and slid it open. Youmu crawled through first followed by Reimu then Kosuzu. Kasen came last and shut the window behind her.

"Which way did they go? Did you see?" Reimu asked.

"That way." Kasen pointed toward the village square.

"I think we should go around, not straight through." Youmu said.

"Funny, I was just thinking the same exact thing. Let's go around through the alleys. Try not to walk too loud to be seen by any Manic." Reimu lead them toward the other side of the village. Taking care to be quiet, the girls circled around toward the light source at the village.

"Wait." Youmu said. "Let Myon take a look. I can see through her eyes so we don't have to get too close until we know what's there."

"...Myon has eyes?" Reimu said. Kasen jabbed her side and she squealed out "Ow!"

"Um, now then. Give me a few seconds, I'll tell you what's there." Youmu patted Myon on her head and closed her eyes.

She sat down and dropped her head facing the ground. Myon dashed toward the air, then toward the source of light in the square of the village. Youmu saw a handful of humans huddled around a fire and some defending against any Manic that got too close. One human was walking toward the girls direction. Everything seemed normal. Myon started back toward Youmu to warn her about the human coming straight toward them until something caught Myon's eye and she got closer toward the fire. What she saw next messed with the connection between Youmu and Myon.

"Ngah!" Youmu's head shot upward.

"What? What is it?" Reimu asked.

"Miss Youmu, is everything all right?"

"Those... Humans are up ahead but..." Youmu managed to stutter her words out.

"But what?"

"They were eating... Ugh..." Youmu gagged.

"Eating what? What were they eating?"

"Another person."

"What the hell?! Are you serious?!" Reimu half-whispered.

"What's worse is... I know who it was." Youmu managed to mutter her words out. "Who was being eaten I mean. It was that blue fairy."

"Cirno?"

"No, the other one. The one with the long brown hair."

Reimu thought for a second, then it hit her. "No way. Star Sapphire?"

"Yeah, her. I barely remembered her but I could tell from her clothing who it was."

Kosuzu's breathing picked up. "What should we do? What should we do?"

"We know what's up ahead. There's no reason to go further so let's go back. We'll figure things out tomorr-" Footsteps from sandals began to draw near the four. The girls immediately kept quiet and stood still, as the person passing by would most likely hear footsteps running away. Youmu reached for the sheathe on her back and drew her shortsword. Reimu stared at Youmu then shook her head. "Don't."

"If he yells out, we're screwed. I have to. Only if he sees us."

The footsteps drew closer and a tall man passed by the alley the girls were in but they stopped and began talking to someone. "It's a shame isn't it. That this place had to go, I mean."

"Yeah, I expected this place to last longer. I tried going home yesterday, but looters stole all the furniture and food so it was empty. Looks like I don't have to worry about food anymore, though. For now, at least."

"Yeah, that fairy was pretty good. Bastards took all of the leg, though. There's still her whole upper body left, have you eaten any yet?"

"Nah. I'll still keep looking in these houses there's gotta be some other stuff to eat that's not humanoid. I've still got a bit of humanity left in me I like to think."

"Do ya? Weren't you one of the people that shot her down? Shame we couldn't get those other two. I like me some blondies."

"You're sick." The other man chuckled.

"Man, this world is sick. Come on, let's go search for some of that food you're looking for. I'll help." The man passed by the alley with the other man but the glint of Youmu's sword in the moonlight caught his eye. "What the fuck?"

"Eep!" Kosuzu squealed."Please don't hurt us."

Youmu didn't wait for them to react. She jumped forward and stabbed her shortsword into the taller mans stomach. He went limp instantly and fell down, taking her sword out of her hand. Youmu pulled the sword from the dead man's body.

"Shit! HEY, S-" The man tried to call out. Youmu diagonally sliced toward the man's head and cut clean through. The cut-off half of his head fell on the ground and his body fell to the floor instantly. Youmu pinched the base of her blade and slid most of the blood off of it.

"Miss Youmu..." Kosuzu stared at Youmu in fear.

"Youmu." Reimu walked up to Youmu and stared at her.

"What?" She asked.

Reimu raised her hand and whipped forward toward Youmu's face. The sound could have woken up the dead, as it echoed through the close walls of the alley. The slap dazed Youmu and threw her off balance. She stared wide-eyed at Reimu, holding and rubbing her cheek.

"You didn't need to kill them. You didn't need to kill two defenseless humans. If they yelled out, we could've run and that would have been the end of it."

"You saw me draw my sword. What did you think would happen? Did you think I'd talk them out of doing anything stupid?"

"You damn well could have! They were unarmed. The worst they could've done is yell out, had they tried anything else we could've overpowered them. I doubt they had any spell cards."

"Who the hell do you think these guys are?! They're savages. You didn't see what I saw."

"L-Ladies, please! You're arguing too loud!" Kosuzu whispered to them. She went over and put her hand on Youmu to try and calm her down. She turned and swiftly punched Kosuzu in her face. Kasen ran to the crying Kosuzu's side.

"Don't touch me!" Youmu screamed out.

Reimu grabbed Youmu by her collar and twirled her in the air to make her face her, making her drop her short sword. "Hit me now. Go on."

Youmu looked at her in condescending disgust. "Let me go."

Reimu threw Youmu away from herself and turn her back toward her. "Let's go. We're screwed if they find us here."

"Go? You said it yourself: they're just defenseless humans. What's there to be scared of?"

Reimu turned around and marched in front of Youmu. "Did you happen to see all of them? What if there's a bunch of them patrolling the streets as we speak? What if not all of them are humans? What if there's youkai and fairies? Do you even _look_ at situations without just your eyes? We're going and I'm not waiting for them to come to us."

Youmu looked at Reimu walk toward Kosuzu's side. She was crying with a big red mark on her cheek. Youmu wiped the blood off her face with her already-bloodied hands which only made her face look worse. She walked over to Kosuzu and the others.

Before Youmu could say anything, Kosuzu began to crawl backwards away from Youmu. "Kosuzu, please. I didn't mean to hit you. I'm sorry."

"Youmu, you have done enough. I would leave her alone for now." Kasen said sternly.

"Right." Youmu thought she must've looked like hell right then. Bloodied body, tattered clothing, breast bind partially ripped. She probably must've looked like a monster to Kosuzu's eyes so it's only normal Kosuzu recoiled to the sight of Youmu.

 _"Guh..."_

"What?" Reimu asked.

"Huh? I didn't say anything." Youmu said.

 _"Ngahhh..."_

"Youmu! Behind you!" Kasen called out.

The man that was stabbed in the stomach began to get back up. His movement was twitchy.

"Hey... Are you all right?" Kosuzu asked as she got up and went toward the map.

There was something not right in Youmu's eyes. His movements were like he was having a bunch of mini-seizures. "Kosuzu. Get back."

"Huh?" Kosuzu turned her head back toward Youmu. The man lunged on Kosuzu, screaming, and bit down on her shoulder. "Hyaah!"

"Shit!" Youmu ran over and pulled the man by the hair and stabbed through the roof of his mouth with her short sword. The man's body went limp and stopped screaming. "Kosuzu! Are you okay?"

"Ngh... Y-Yes, I'm fine." Kosuzu got up, shocked and clutching her shoulder.

"She was bit." Kasen said. "Isn't it over for her..?"

Youmu felt around Kosuzu's shoulder. There were faint teeth marks on her blouse but it didn't rip through. "No, she's fine. It didn't bite through, thankfully. Does it hurt?"

"Yes, but I'll live. Thank you."

Youmu thought of apologizing once more about punching her in the face, but thought against reminding her about it.

"You're just like me now. We were both attacked and they didn't rip through our clothing... Well, they didn't rip through _your_ clothing." Youmu joked. Kosuzu giggled at Youmu's poor attempt at lightening the mood.

"What the hell was that?" Reimu said.

"That human came back to life after it was killed. How?" Kasen asked..

"Wish I knew. I don't think he was bitten, was he?" Reimu asked Youmu.

"Huh... I wonder about that." Youmu turned the corpse over, raised his shirt sleeves and looked for bite marks. The skin was terribly sweaty, glistening in the moonlight. "No obvious bites on his arm or neck from what I can see. I doubt if he was bitten he'd last long enough to hang out and talk to his friend here."

"I wonder..." Kasen said.

"What?"

"I wonder if we all end up like that when we die." Kasen said. "Also, why didn't his friend come back?"

"I imagine it's because I cut the better part of his head off. His brain is destroyed." Youmu said.

"I'd... rather not think about that, to be honest." Kosuzu said. "I don't wanna think we come back.

"Oh. I'm sorry." Kasen said. "You're right, we shouldn't think about something so macabre."

"Ah! It's fine! I'm sorry for making you worry." Kosuzu said to reassure Kasen.

"We've made a lot of noise. We should leave before anyone who heard comes here." Reimu said. "We originally came for food but now we can't stay here."

"We should head to Eientei now. There has to be food and shelter there. Eirin has to know what exactly is going on."

"I agree. If this is a disease, which I'm starting to get convinced it is, we should go to Eirin." Kasen said.

"I agree too." Kosuzu said, quieter than usual. "Um, let's do it."

"I'm glad. I was hoping I wouldn't have to go alone. Coming here alone was hell enough..."

"Nah, you're stuck with us now." Reimu said.

...

"Okay, we're ready so enough standing around. We're lucky they haven't started patrolling around here." Kasen said. "Eientei is in the west, if I recall. We should go this way down the alley."

"However, won't we need food?" Reimu said. "There's some back at the house."

"Eientei isn't far at all. We should make it in less than an hour or two if we fly."

"I can't fly..." Kosuzu said quietly.

"Oh." Kasen felt guilty. "Well, I would be for going back and getting some food, but keep in mind that it's extremely dangerous. I'll carry you when we fly. We can get there in a short amount of time. You don't look too heavy, either. Let's find a safe place to take off at."

"That works. I hope you'll be able to carry me for that long a distance." Kosuzu said. "Let's go."

As the girls left the village, Youmu thought back to the human she killed. Previously, she had only killed youkai or ghosts but never a living human being. While she did feel guilty about the kill, she knew that had she not done what had the girls would have been found out and become the humans' next meal. She thought back to the blue fairy, the one called Star. Youmu wondered how she ended up being their dinner tonight. She had to have been killed today. It saddened Youmu, how sad is a death in this situation that's not to those biting Manic? Times have changed the humans into cannibalistic savages that kill defenseless fairies. Looking back, it made sense: the death of one person to help many others stay alive. The humans were pushed back to acting like cavemen, hunting whatever moves to sustain themselves. However, not every human could kill what they hunt and sometimes ended up the one being killed. This symbolism was that human and Youmu. She killed to protect her group, she thought. Eventually, the guilt went away and was replaced by a feeling of gladness.

Her group accepted her and she earned her keep by protecting them.

In this dog-eat-dog world, Youmu would protect them and she knew they would do the same in return.

 **Swordplay and wait...**


	19. Sakuya III

**Sakuya**

 **Caravan**

"Are you gonna talk? You're only making this harder on yourself." She recognized this voice from hearing him talk to Mayu. It was one of her muscular lackeys. They had been interrogating her for at least a few days. From what she could see through her blindfold, two days passed since they raided the Scarlet Devil Mansion. They had been trying to get answers as to where Remilia could be. It seems Patchouli did a good job of evacuating her to safety. That, or she's doing a damn good job at playing hide and seek with them in the mansion. "All right I guess not. I have to do this again. Sorry."

Sakuya felt an intense burning pain on the side of her torso. It felt like she was being branded. "Rrrrrgh! Nghh!"

Ringing took over Sakuya's ears from the pain she felt. She hadn't eaten since she had been taken from the Mansion so her stomach was already hurting. She could barely hear the rustling of a drape of some sort "Woahhh! How is she doing? She looks like hell!" It was that fairy.

"What do you want?" Sakuya muttered.

"Nah. I'm just here to check in on you. See that you're enjoying your stay and all that." Sakuya could hear Mayu chewing loudly, almost tauntingly.

"Is that supposed to be a poor attempt to get me to crack?"

"Haha! Yeah, it is. Didn't work, did it? It's onigiri! Too cliché, huh?"

"Yeah, it is. You won't make me crack that easily. Even then, I wouldn't know where she is."

"Haha, right! I believe that! Listen, most of the people here lost their families and loved ones to these Manic. Not to mention a lot of these boys lost their girlfriends. You catch my drift?"

"Is that how you're going to threaten me? By giving me to the men of your caravan? I told you I don't know where she is."

"Ryosuke. Leave us please." Sakuya guessed that was the name of the man who was torturing her. "I'll give you the benefit of the doubt. Lets say you really don't know where they are. Do you have any idea where they might be? Any idea at all?"

"You also fail to know one thing: my lady is _not_ behind this whole thing. People went crazy naturally during the scarlet moon incident. They were freaking out. The moon had no effect on people. This is not the work of my lady."

"Hmm... Okay."

Sakuya was a little surprised. "Okay?"

"Okay. I'm not gonna get anything out of you. Oi, Ryosuke!" Mayu called out. The man stomped into the room. He grunted and Mayu whispered in his ear. The giant grunted in affirmation. Sakuya wondered what he told her.

"Okay, Ryosuke here will get the answers out of you! I'm gonna leave you to it!" Mayu cackled.

"Huh?!" Sakuya started to get scared. She wriggled around. "No! I'm serious! I don't know!"

Sakuya heard nothing but the drapes being drawn, which she guessed was Mayu leaving the room. then heavy breathing. Her heart pounded in her chest. "I'm sorry but Lady Mayu wishes this to be. I cannot disobey or she will be mad." Ryosuke said in a deep voice.

"P-please, don't do this." Sakuya said, then she felt a hand on her right thigh. She thought he was feeling her but instead she felt the belt around her thigh carrying her knives come unstrapped. She heard him set it down somewhere. "Ah..."

"I'm sorry. You're very pretty too. I hate to do this to you." He said. His hand caressed her face. It was hard skin, it had seen work in some sort of tailoring or smithing.

Sakuya's voice hitched. "At... At least let me see your face." Sakuya said, almost crying.

There was a pause in the caressing, then the hand withdrew. She felt a few strands of her hair pulled as he pulled the blindfold off. The light was almost blinding and her vision was unfocused. She saw a rather plain, giant man in front of her in a yukata from the Human Village. The man looked like he could easily overpower Sakuya in terms of strength, there was no arguing that.

"Wow..." The man said. It was obvious he hadn't seen a lot of women before, Sakuya thought. He was mesmerized by a girl like her and she wasn't anything special, she said to herself. "You're very pretty."

"While that is flattering, this isn't the kind of thing you say to someone who's tied up." She looked away, shyly.

"I can't untie you, sorry." The man said.

"I know. Just do your thing." Sakuya pretended to tear up.

"Agh! You're making this too hard on me. I can't do this!" He stepped away from her and pulled at his own hair in frustration. "But I have to."

"It's okay. I won't go against you. Don't worry about me." She hoped the facade she was putting up was working.

"Are you sure?" He asked.

"Are you really asking me this now? Yes, I'm sure." Sakuya said, pretending to be her cutest.

"O-okay." He walked up to her and his face drew closer.

 _"Oh, shit."_ Sakuya braced herself but instead he kissed her neck. She felt really uncomfortable with the strange wet feeling on her neck. She pretended to moan. Then she had an idea. "H-hey, this really hurts."

Ryosuke looked up at her tied-up hands. He sighed, "Okay. I'll untie you. I don't want to have to hurt you, so please behave." His Japanese sounded rather simple, like a child speaking.

"I will behave." Sakuya looked at the ground as her untied the binds on her hands. The pain of her arms being twisted upward past her head went away instantly. She smiled at the giant and he giggled like an idiot.

"I have... never touched a girl before. All the girls in the Human Village think I'm ugly." He looked at the ground.

 _"Well, they weren't really wrong."_ She thought to herself. "How cruel! You're not ugly!"

"You really think so?" Ryosuke scratched his head. He looked like a little kid. "Thanks."

While he was looking at the floor, Sakuya looked around the room quickly for where he put her knives. Surely he was stupid enough to put them somewhere in plain sight but look as she might, she couldn't find them anywhere. Suddenly, Ryosuke grabbed her and kissed her. She was in shock for a few seconds and tried to cry out but her mouth was pushed up against his.

"Mmmph! Mrrngh!" Sakuya felt her tongue being assaulted by his. Her gag reflex instantly acted up. It was not a texture she recognized nor did she fancy. Ryosuke pushed her on the floor and they continued kissing. She wanted to get him off of her, but her knives were nowhere to be found.

Suddenly, Sakuya saw something in the corner of her eye. The familiar glare of silver was underneath the table right next to her. She knew that if she reached for it, he would be immediately alarmed. To distract him, she wrapped an arm around him to make him think she was into the kiss. Her free arm reached for the knives but she was only a few inches short of them. Then she broke the kiss and backed up a bit.

"My back hurts. Sorry." Sakuya said. She made really small movements backwards toward the knives. She reached out her arms toward him. "Come to me."

He looked like an animal as he crawled over to her, but almost instantly she reached for the knives, pulled one out of its sheathe and lunged it toward him. The knife found it's mark and hit him square in the head. Blood began to leak from the gap between flesh and blade. He fell to the ground and the blood began to pool around his head slowly. She wiped her mouth and walked toward his body. Sakuya pulled the knife from his head and blood flooded out from the now fully open wound. While it was a gamble, her plan worked. She was now stuck in the back of the caravan. There was a flap leading outside but the caravan was moving. Sakuya grabbed her garter belt and looked outside. They were going just slow enough for her to jump without getting seriously hurt. Gathering all her courage, she jumped out. Her high heels messed up her fall and she fell and bent her ankle in a strange angle, twist it on the hard dirt road. Her head and ankle was pounding in pain.

...

The caravan slowly disappeared off into the horizon. Sakuya took a step then cried out in pain. When she landed on the ground,her twisted ankle made each step she took bring great pain. It was turning night and the Manic were to come out soon. Sakuya limped down the road opposite to where the caravan was headed then she heard a skid. The caravan was skidding to a halt and a group of people got out. Sakuya quickly jumped to the side of the road behind a bush and observed them.

"The hell did she go?" A woman said.

"She must've jumped. She's gotta be in the forest. After her, quick! Before the sun goes down!" The group scattered into the forest.

 _"Persistent lot,"_ Sakuya thought. She limped farther into the forest to lose them.

Despite being a forest, this particular one didn't have a lot of cover. Sun patches were scattered throughout and as a result, there weren't many Manic hiding in the shade from what Sakuya could see. She still kept her distance on the off chance a Manic was actually one of Mayu's lackeys. Sakuya ran and hid behind every bush she could and after a short while, Sakuya saw a break in the forest. There was a small abandoned house in the distance next to a small pond. She limped quickly toward it then she was pushed to the ground by a tackle. A young human woman had tackled her. She was a little taller than Sakuya. The human sat on top of her and started to punch her face repeatedly.

"Oof! Unh!" Sakuya was pinned down and unable to do anything. Her arms were pinned down by the woman's knees. Wiggled as she might, she couldn't get the woman off of her.

"I'm gonna be the one to kill you. After what you did to Ryosuke, you deserve every little bit of this you bitch!" The woman continued to Sakuya's face.

Sakuya twisted her body to wiggle her arms off from underneath her knees. Joints cracking like knuckles, Sakuya eventually broke her arms free from the pin of her attacker's knees and grabbed her by the collar. The woman punched Sakuya in the gut and winded her. She fell down, clutching her stomach and struggling for breath. The human grabbed Sakuya's hair and went to slam it against the tree's sharp bark. Sakuya pushed against the tree, preventing the human from slamming her against the tree and headbutt the woman on the nose. She unsheathed a knife from her belt and stabbed it against the womans stomach.

"Nghh!" The woman groaned in pain, however she kept punching Sakuya's face. She repeatedly plunged the knife into the human woman's stomach. Sakuya could feel the strength of the woman leave with each stab of a knife. She stopped stabbing and the woman collapsed to the ground, wheezing but still alive. Using what looked like the last bit of her strength, she lunged toward Sakuya. Sakuya reacted quickly by throwing the knife at the head of the woman like she did to Ryosuke with the newfound distance she created between them. The knife hit the woman's eyebrow and she went limp and collapsed to the floor, life leaving her body instantly.

Sakuya exhaled, realizing she had held her breath the whole time. She heard the chatter of the group she was with not that far away. After taking the knife out of her head, Sakuya continued her previous goal of limping toward the house.

The door was off it's hinge so she had to pick up the door to get in and put it back down to close it. It was a gamble, since anyone could get in but Sakuya didn't care. She finally had shelter that wasn't a bumpy caravan. The inside was a mess and cobweb galore and smelled of mildew, but it was better to be inside at night than outside. There was a small bed, which was the cleanest thing inside the house. Save for a few brown spots, the sheets and pillow were completely white. Exhuasted, she plopped down onto the bed. It smelled of mildew but it wouldn't bother her once she went to sleep. Almost instantly, she dozed off and fell asleep on the brown stained bed.

 **Teatime and sleep...**


End file.
